Two Captains Missing the Mark
by OhhPlease
Summary: Across the seas two people who had lost nearly everything suddenly gained an understanding of the future that they didn't have before. It was too late to change the things that virtually ruined their younger years, but they still had time to improve the future… (Adopted by Cynical Internet)
1. Prologue

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own One Piece

 _Summary:_ Across the seas two people who had lost nearly everything suddenly gained an understanding of the future that they didn't have before. It was too late to change the things that virtually ruined their younger years, but they still had time to improve the future… Right?

 _Warnings:_ Luffy and Law might end up being OOC because character development. Strong Language. Violence, more graphic when involving Law.

* * *

 **Prologue:**

* * *

Kaido was dead, however both captains knew that they were heading towards the same fate.

Luffy was grinning horribly wide, because he didn't have any regrets. To him this was a great death, reached when attempting to achieve his dream.

Even Law found himself giving a smaller version of that same expression; he was at peace with this. After having gotten his revenge, dying an interesting death, achieving something others would consider impossible... Well it was certainly worth it. Who else could say that they'd killed one of the big four?

.

* * *

Luffy's eyes snapped open and he waved his head around. How did he survive? Did Chopper somehow get him and heal him? Where was Traffy? Was he okay? However instead of being met with the face of his fuzzy nakama he found himself looking at a face he'd hoped he'd never see again.

Dadan.

That of course didn't make any sense, even Luffy knew that.

"What's going on?" He asked, his expression dazed. Maybe he was mistaking this monster in front of him with the face of his reindeer's transformed state?

"… You don't remember?" The figure asked hesitantly.

"Nope." Came Luffy's blunt answer.

"Luffy… You collapsed yesterday after crying for a few hours when you received the news that… Sabo is dead."

The answer came in hesitant pauses, and upon hearing that Luffy went into a state of shock and disbelief. Sabo died? That was years ago, and sure, he never forgot and would kick any Celestial Dragon's ass that ended up in front of him, however this didn't change the fact Luffy knew it happened YEARS ago.

So what was going on here?

Damn he wished he had Traffy or Robin, they were smart, they could help him figure this mystery out.

Luffy cocked his head to the side. "… That was years ago. Who are you exactly?" Luffy asked slowly.

"That was just last night Luffy. Maybe you need to go to the hospital… I'm Dadan remember? I can't have Garp finding out I damaged you in a severe way." The orange haired woman replied, hoping that Luffy wasn't mentally damaged. Garp would kill her, for sure.

Luffy was an idiot, but even he knew that this wasn't possible. It just wasn't POSSIBLE.

This begged the question of just how the FUCK it was possible.

* * *

Across an ocean or two another person snapped awake and frantically looked around. Trafalgar D. Water Law didn't really understand the situation, but he was paranoid enough that even completely discombobulated, he still wanted to gain a full understanding as soon as possible.

What he came across was something that was inconceivable, but there were very few explanations as to why he looked so different upon glancing toward the mirror. A child was shown in the reflection, perhaps the age of thirteen if he could remember corrected - mostly based on his lack of tattoos. Getting up, completely and utterly ignoring any sense of vertigo that he could be feeling, he looked around for the date.

Because surely not.

Yet it was true, if this was correct he was back in time.

Law considered himself a logical individual if not a bit sassy at times. Therefore he didn't exactly believe he could die and somehow end up in a past body of himself. However on the Grand Line one should prepare for anything, right?

This left him with the question of what exactly he should do if this was more than just a fucked up dream. The most safe thing he could do would be not to change anything, but Law knew that just returning back to the past would affect the way he acted even if only by a tiny bit, so that wasn't exactly possible. Which lead him to trying to figure out how it happened.

Most likely some devil fruit power, which left him with more possibilities than he thought. If it was a devil fruit, then there was someone next to him when it had been used.

It was unlikely one person came back in time, but two?

But if anyone was going to defy the possible it would be Monkey D. Luffy.

Law needed to know, because even though he didn't like to admit it, Luffy-ya had become someone he'd cared about just as much as he cared for his crew before he had to give them up. Luffy was different though, because unlike the rest of his crew who weren't strong by Grand Line standards, Luffy could take care of himself. These factors lead him to an inability to NOT get attached.

That line of thought could be saved for later. First thing was first was finding out if his theory was correct. For such an outlandish thing there was only one possibility, he'd need to go there himself. He didn't know any other way to get in touch with the man other than going to the island himself. From what he remembered, Luffy had lived on Dawn Island – Surprisingly the other man had been nearly as sparse in explaining his past as Law was and that was saying something.

Either way, with his plan settled he'd make his way there as fast as humanly possible.

* * *

End Chapter:

 _Authour Note:_ I eventually have in mind to at least get up to the time skip in this story but that will need a lot of hoping and praying~ Also worth mentioning, I think I'm twisting Law's age a bit to fit my story line more. Instead of what, seven years older? He's only five years in difference if I can maths at all. Also rather importantly, I put a poll up about which day I should update if it at all matters to people you can weigh in. I'm actually curious just beyond my story what the majority of people think.

Please leave a review and tell me what you think~ Give me your opinion on the pairing, because although it's a long time in coming there will EVENTUALLY be one. I'm okay with het and slash so let me know your opinion.

(4/24/16) My new beta reader just went through this chapter, and she has her own amazing One Piece stories that you can check out. Her user is DemonicWhispers

 **Read and Review!**


	2. Meeting Coby

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own One Piece

 _Summary:_ Across the seas two people who had lost nearly everything suddenly gained an understanding of the future that they didn't have before. It was too late to change the things that virtually ruined their younger years, but they still had time to improve the future… Right?

 _Warnings:_ Luffy and Law might end up being OOC because character development. Strong Language. Violence, more graphic when involving Law.

* * *

 **Chapter One: Meeting Coby**

* * *

Luffy had to wonder where the time had flown to. It felt like it had been only a month or so ago that Law had found his way to Dawn Island, when in reality it was just short of nine years ago. So much had changed, even his plans had changed. The rubber-man knew that even the make-up of his future crew was going to be changed in ways he hadn't originally thought could possibly happen.

Traffy was going to be his First Mate.

It wasn't a choice that came easily. In fact it was one of the hardest things he'd ever done.

Law allowed him to come to the inevitable conclusion in his own time. The fact of the matter was, Law was going to be on Luffy's crew, and Law didn't really take orders. Even the position of First Mate with Law was going to mean less of a First Mate and more of something near a Co-Captainship. Luffy would get the final say, but Law would be getting heavy weight.

Just adjusting to the idea itself took a lot of time for Luffy.

When it was time to set sail, Luffy started out with the same humble beginnings as the first time. Only this time there was a person beside him from the very beginning.

Any sort of deep thoughts left him as he snickered toward himself; he knew what was going to be happening soon. Which was why this time around he made sure he had two barrels.

"Shishishishihihihi!"

The doctor didn't pay any mind to the snickering. If there was anything he'd learned when living with Monkey D. Luffy in the past nine years, it was how to ignore the man.

"Oi-oi-oi Traffy, it's here! Time for the first adventure to start!" Luffy enthused as he started to climb up into the barrel.

This worried Law for a moment, wondering just what Luffy was on about, before he looked around and noticed the situation occurring. Narrowing his eyes he glared at his new Captain, "I don't know how I deal with an idiot like you."

"That's Captain Idiot to you now, Traffy~!" Luffy teased, before he closed the barrel completely around himself, but the echo of his snickering could still be heard.

Face palming himself, Law looked at the barrel he was going to be climbing into with a wince of disgust. It was demoralizing and more than a bit humiliating. Ever since Punk Hazard he'd known it could be like that with Luffy, but it seemed that he never learned his lesson. The idiot must have some sort of weird attractive charm. With one final grimace he pushed himself into the barrel and hoped that this actually worked, otherwise they were both doomed before their second chance at adventure even began.

Inside of the barrel, Luffy was having the time of his life. Just thinking about meeting his future crew soon made him giddy. The surgeon on the other hand had a very different experience. He wasn't made of rubber, so the jarring movements of the barrel weren't exactly comfortable. Eventually he hit his head and black seeped in through the corner of his eyes, 'This is not good' was his last coherent thought.

Luffy went on obliviously, falling asleep at some point as they drifted.

* * *

A grumbling voice could be heard from outside the barrel, causing Luffy to get up rather suddenly to stretch. It was probably Traffy telling him it was time to get to business.

"I SLEPT SO GREAT!" He yelled with a wide smile as the barrel broke around him.

There was a bump and a body hit the floor, causing Luffy to look over with confusion, "Who's that?"

"Mugiwara-ya, you idiot."

Luffy swung back to look at Law, who was holding his head which had a large lump on it and just grinned.

"Shishishi you look funny Traffy, what happened to your head?"

Only one day into this 'adventure' and Law could feel the need to kill the idiot already building up. Internally he counted down from 100 and just stayed silent to watch the proceedings.

"Anyway who the hell are you guys?" Luffy said as he turned back toward the other people in the room. He thought they looked a little familiar, but he just couldn't place it.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" They screamed back at him.

"Your friend will get a cold sleeping like that." Luffy stated obliviously, stepping out of the remainder of his bucket.

"YOU'RE THE ONE THAT KNOCKED HIM OUT!" The two useless henchmen screeched before pulling out a weapon and holding it out in front of Luffy. "Hold up, are you messing with us when you know good and well that we are vicious pirates? HUH?!"

Luffy just ignored them and grinned over toward the pink haired male. It was good to see Coby again, last time he heard in the future time line his friend had been a Vice Admiral and getting closer to achieving his dream by the day.

"I'm starving, you got any meat?"

Law pushed off the wall he was leaning on and walked forward until he was next to his Captain, "I'm actually pretty hungry as well. This idiot caused us to be in a bucket for a quite a long time without food after all."

"Shishishishi~!"

"I'M TALKING TO YOU!"

"YOU DAMN KID!"

The two weak henchmen drew their swords back in what was most likely going to be an attempt to hit Luffy and Law.

Luffy just glanced backwards at them nonchalantly as his magic finger poked the blades, causing them to break. Something he learned after watching his Grandpa do it when he was visiting. He'd seen it before from the CP9 people a long time ago, but he hadn't remembered enough to learn it himself.

"Who the hell are you guys?!" One of the fallen men asked, which caused Luffy to grin.

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy, and this is my First Mate Traffy!"

"… My name is Trafalgar Law. You'd think after all this time you could pronounce it correctly."

"I like calling Traffy, Traffy." Luffy said in a matter of fact tone.

Coby on the other hand, was cowering in the corner, looking at the two before him in shock. What was with this carefree attitude? Didn't they know where they were? It was even more shocking when the pirates took their fallen comrades and dragged him out, apparently in fear of the people before him. In Coby's world he'd never seen anyone strong enough to do something like that other than Alvida.

Then he took another look at them, they were pretty intimidating themselves. Law was no shirt, showing off a number of tattoos, and a long jacket thrown over himself, A grinning sign on his back under the words 'Corazon' and spotted jeans. (AN: Essentially Dressrosa arc outfit) Luffy was wearing black jean shorts and sandals, wearing a black and yellow top with the same grinning symbol on it. (AN: Icon pic, coloured in correctly) Both of them were wearing weird hats, one a mushroom looking hat, the while Luffy was wearing a raggedy looking straw hat.

Then Coby remembered what an idiot Luffy was, and found him a lot less intimidating, finding himself questioning the strangers, "Wha-what just happened?"

"You got me, they seemed like weirdos. First they attack me and then they run like that. Weird." Luffy stated.

Coby shook off his shock and quickly moved to inform the obviously ignorant people before him, "Quick! You got to run! If those guys come back here with their buddies then they'll kill you on the spot!"

"I don't care about that I'm hungry." Luffy said, laughing.

"… Don't tell me what to do." Law muttered under his breath and glared at the kid in front of them. Luffy had told him that Coby was going to become strong one day, and to be honest Law didn't understand why they were allowing that. Luffy wanted to encourage the kid to become a strong marine? Seemed counter productive to their goals.

"You can't just blow this off like that! There are hundreds of them around and they are just waiting for open season to kill someone!"

Luffy just ignored him and sniffed the air, if Coby wouldn't tell him where the food was he'd find it himself. Coby on the other hand was trying his best to drag Luffy back, which had absolutely no effect on him as he just walked normally, with all the training they'd done in those ten years, a little bit of extra weight didn't matter to him. Law just trailed behind, taking in the ship around them.

When he finally found the food, Luffy jumped down with a cry of joy.

"Meat, meat, meat, meat, MEAT!"

Law just stayed near the door, acting as look out not really trusting Coby for something of the like.

"Who knows, maybe we'll be safe in here…" Coby muttered to himself optimistically. Coby turned away from the door, inching away from Law who was eyeing him occasionally.

"Hey… I'm Coby, you're Luffy, that right? That was pretty neat before, with the barrel."

Luffy was disappointed he couldn't find any meat, instead settling on stuffing a good amount of apples down his gullet, "These are really good, hey are we on a pirate ship or what?"

To be honest Luffy didn't think they happened to be anywhere important. It was probably some weakling that he didn't even really bother to remember. In fact there was only two others apart than his nakama he could even remember on the east blue was Arlong and Mihawk when he visited.

"No, it's a passenger ship which is being raided by pirates. Pirates under the command of Lady Alvida." Coby responded.

"What I really want to know is if there are any boats on board. Our boat got sucked into a giant whirlpool on our way here. It was actually a big surprise that we lived, those barrels were really useful!" Luffy stated with a big grin, unknowingly causing Coby a lot of exasperation, "So are you one of the pirates or are you a passenger?"

Coby got all serious, "It was on a fateful day long ago, and I stepped onto a fishing boat…"

Luffy just didn't listen to the rest of it, and went back to eating apples. He could vaguely remember Coby's story involving him doing something stupid, which was good enough.

"You're pretty stupid you know that?"

"Oi, that doesn't mean much coming from you Luffy-ya." Law teased with a smirk.

Luffy slumped over with a pout, "So mean Traffy."

Coby on the other hand just looked downright depressed at Luffy's honest words. He was just shaking his head back and forth frantically.

"If you hate it, just leave." Luffy stated simply.

"NO! No way no how not possible! Not a chance, just the thought of Alvida finding me scares me so bad I wanna throw up."

Luffy just started laughing, "You're a moron and a coward. I hate people like you."

Even through the laughing, Coby got the feeling that Luffy was being serious. So he slumped down farther into depression. It was such a hopeless situation to him, even if it was true.

"Yeah, you're right. If I had the courage I could drift in a barrel and be rid of these pirates. I actually have my own dream. Someday I'd like to live it out. What about you Luffy? What was it that first got you to set out on these seas?"

"Well I'm going to be King of the Pirates."

Coby just looked at him entirely shocked, and Law face-palmed again. Something of a habit he'd picked up since starting to deal with Luffy.

"K-k-k-k… King?"

"Yep."

"Of the P-P-Pirates?"

"Yep!"

"Are you serious?!"

"Of course."

"B-but that would mean that you're a pirate too!" He shouted incredulously.

"Mhmm~!" Luffy agreed happily.

"You're crew?"

"Well, I've got Traffy so far, and he's my First Mate. We'll pick up more along the way, along with a ship!"

It was at that point Coby offline. Luffy moved over to him and waved a hand in front of his face trying to see if he was paying any attention. There was no reaction so Luffy looked to Law, "Traffy, I think he broke. You're a doctor, fix him."

Law scowled at the order, but didn't react negatively otherwise, "He's just shocked Mugiwara-ya. Give him a second to process."

Suddenly Coby stood up and started to shout at him, "King of the Pirates is the title given to the one that obtains everything that this world as to offer! You're talking about seeking the great treasure of wealth! The One Piece!"

Luffy nodded to each point Coby made, "Yep, that's just about right."

"B-BU-BUT PIRATES FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD ARE LOOKING FOR THAT TREASURE YOU KNOW!"

"Yep~!"

"NO WAY IT'S IMPOSSIBLE IMPOSSIBLE IMPOSSIBLE IMPOSSIBLE! THERE'S NO WAY ANYONE LIKE YOU COULD EVER REACH THE PINNACLE OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A PIRATE! THERE'S JUST TOO MANY OUT THERE THAT ARE EVEN BETTER – …"

Coby's loud ranting was cut off with a fist to the top of the head by Luffy, a remnant of his Grandpa's Fist of Love. Coby collapsed to the ground holding his head.

"Oww… Why did you hit me?"

"Cause I felt like it." Luffy replied calmly.

Law actually raised an eyebrow. He'd witnessed Luffy do far worse to people who besmirched his dream before, and that punch was essentially a little love tap. Though that thought made him shudder, Garp was one fucked up individual that he did not like dealing with on his time at Dawn Island. The man had taken to him, saying that he'd be Luffy's lieutenant when he joined the Navy. This gained him a similar treatment to Luffy when it came to the training they were put under.

Normally it wouldn't be too much of a problem, but when Garp trained you there was no use of devil fruit allowed.

He shuddered once more at the thought before paying mind to what Luffy was saying.

"It's not about if I can become King, I'm doing this because I want to. I decided a long time ago that I'm going to be King and if I have to die fighting for that, then I die. It's when you die with regrets that you truly fail."

Coby looked at Luffy with a sense of awe, and Luffy's First Mate just nodded, they'd both been there, and dying didn't matter if you were truly dying a fulfilled death. They'd done everything they could, and that was what truly mattered.

"Now, let's get ourselves a new boat Traffy~ they might even just give me one if I ask nice enough, although last time I don't think it worked like that…"

"… Do you think I could do it?" Coby asked softly from behind Luffy.

Luffy hid a small smile at the question. He already knew that Coby could if given the correct motivation. On the other hand, maybe he could get Coby to join the crew… That would be a nice addition considering how strong he'd gotten under Gramps…

Instead of revealing his thoughts, Luffy just asked for clarification, "Do I think you could do what?"

"Do… Do you think I could ever join the Marines?"

"Marines?" Luffy pretended to be confused.

"YES! Catching bad guys is everything I've ever wanted to do. It's been my dream since I was a child. Do you think I could do it?"

Coby waited in anticipation to hear the answer, almost expecting something encouraging.

"How should I know that?"

Apparently that was enough though.

"I'm gonna do it! I'm not gonna get stuck here as a cabin boy for the rest of my life! I'll break out then I'll turn right around and capture Alvida myself-…"

Before Coby could continue his long winded rant on achieving his dream, the roof started to cave in around him. Law reached back and placed a hand on his sword just in case, and another hand in front of him if the creation of a 'Room' was needed.

"Who is that you plan on catching Coby? Do you actually think that this twig is going to help you? Well? Are you relying on the one behind him? Do you seriously think it's going to work?"

Luffy watched the proceeding with a curious expression. If he remembered correctly Coby says something funny soon –

Sensing with his haki someone was about to push some blades through the door, Luffy moved away from them. That however did make him wonder what sort of luck he'd had the first time that those didn't hit him, causing him to quietly snicker.

"My personal guess is that neither of you are Zoro the Pirate Hunter."

Luffy allowed an almost uncharacteristic smirk to grace his lips at this. The reaction that his own swordsman would have had at the idea Luffy was him. As for the smirk, well Luffy thought that particular expression had something to do with being around Traffy so much.

The ugly hag spoke up again, "Well Coby, who is the most beautiful pirate on all of these seas?"

"Boa Hancock." Law answered with a emotionless expression.

Though Law personally wasn't attracted to her, it was a widely held opinion that she was. Just the idea of being attracted to someone that could use that to turn you to stone was kind of a turn off to him, but other people seemed to fall for it well enough.

Either way it seemed to piss Alvida off.

"COBY! TEACH HIM HOW IT'S DONE! WHO IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PIRATE SAILING THE SEA?!" Screeched the rare part human part whale.

"Hey Coby, is this fat lady the pirate that captured you?" Luffy asked rather calmly, completely ignoring the whale.

Everyone seemed to freeze. It was worse then what Law had said, bringing up the woman's weight was apparently a no go.

"YOU LITTLE RUUUUNNNTTT!~"

The women swung a large iron club at him; instead Luffy jumped over to where Coby was and grabbed him, dragging them both upward. This caused the resident doctor to scowl. Luffy had completely forgot that he'd been there again. That absent minded captain of his…

* * *

Up on the deck, Luffy was fighting with the multiple opponents that were in the area. They were weak really, he didn't need to do more than just punch them and they went down. One even attempted to attack from behind, but the expressions of the others gave it away so well he didn't even need haki to sense him. Truthfully the battle was boring.

Deciding to just finish this up quickly, Luffy ran away only to Gomu-gomu Rocket them; they went down like a bunch of bowling pins.

"Luffy… What are you…?" Coby asked, staring around them at the fallen pirates in completely stupefaction.

"I'm a rubber-man!"

Just as he said that, Law walked up from the lower decks with a small scowl still painted on his face. Stopping once he was in hearing range of the conversation.

"So, you've eaten of the devil fruit…"

No, Luffy-ya is just naturally made of rubber, Law thought irritated, the situation was just getting more bothersome the longer that they were there, and he could tell that the moment he started to sarcastically think to himself. It was a sign.

"I've heard rumors of the fruits but I've never seen anything like it myself. You are more talented than the average deck swabber, are you a bounty hunter?"

"Nope, I'm a pirate." Luffy stated in blunt honesty.

Before anyone could say anything else though, Law could feel himself losing his temper. A dangerous smirk rose to the corner of his lips.

"You know, I've been through a lot these past few days because of my Captain, I'm tired and I spent days in the ocean after having a concussion… But I think I feel better now. You see, there is a part whale human in front of me, and being the curious doctor I am, I want to see how it works. To do that all I need to do is take it apart, who knows I might make great leaps in the name of science… Room!"

From the doctor's outstretched hand, an orb of blue spread across the area of the boat. Pulling out his sword, Law lunged forward and cut the woman's head off, quickly followed by taking out her kidney. Grabbing the head from out of the air and tossing it around like a plaything, leaving the organ on the floor.

The people around them freaked out, staring at Law as if he was the devil himself.

"Shishishishishi~ Traffy is so impatient. Look at their expressions though, shishishishi~!" Luffy collapsed onto the floor laughing, holding his stomach.

"W-WH-WHAT!" Alvida screamed, looking at the parts of her body which were separated from her head in absolute horrified fascination.

Coby just stared at the scene, he wasn't sure if he wanted to throw up or jump in joy at what was going on to Alvida right now.

Meanwhile, Luffy calmed himself down, just giving a small snicker every once in awhile and turned toward the people on the deck of the other boat, "Hey you guys. We just beat your leader, so you might want to do what me and my First Mate say unless you want to end up in a similar position as her… Right?"

Luffy looked them over with a raised eyebrow, and they all quickly nodded.

"Shishishi! That's great. Me, Traffy, and Coby need a ship. We are leaving for a Marine base. Fill up the biggest ship you have with food for us and let us know when it's ready okay?"

The crew quickly nodded and fled to do what was asked of them. Luffy turned toward Law, "Oi Traffy, are you going to put her back together or should we just leave her like that."

"Pfft, I can't be bothered to put this annoyance back together."

Coby just looked back and forth between them both, "… You're going to take me to a marine base…?"

"Well, you did say that was your dream right? But you better be prepared, because the entire way there I'm going to try to get you to join me instead. Plus, the base that is nearest to here has someone who's going to join my crew anyway." Luffy said in his signature blunt manner.

Law looked at Luffy with a raised eyebrow; it wasn't exactly part of the plan to have Coby join them. However the kid was kind of growing on him in a weird way, even if he was still annoying. Coby had shown his potential to be stronger in the other timeline anyway – So having him on the crew was actually better for them in the long run. No objections from him then.

Eventually the crew came back and said the ship was ready. Luffy, Law, and Coby made their way over, Law throwing the still screeching head of Alvida next to her body and fallen organ. The second that they got onto the ship, Luffy turned toward Coby.

"So… Me and Traffy can't really navigate… Do us a favor and get us to the base?"

"… YOU CAN'T NAVIGATE?! WHO SETS OUT TO SEA WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO NAVIGATE?"

Just as he said that, Luffy cut the rope holding the boat up and they hit the sea making their escape, Luffy snickering at Coby's overreaction.

Zoro was going to be joining them again soon.

That thought made Luffy grin even wider. He couldn't wait!

* * *

 **End Chapter:**

* * *

 _Authour Note:_ (Edited 4/30/16) Some nice Law action at the end that I personally am proud of~ I feel like it's hard to get his personality because he seems serious sometimes, but I also know that he was immature and pretty damn funny with his competitive interactions with Kidd especially. So let me know if you think I got it down in a review~ Lots of people are saying they want a Lawlu fic, and that's definitely a good option. However I won't be deciding for awhile now. The relationship stuff probably won't even be anything until Skypai . Also to clarify for some people, Sabo is dead dead, not coming back kind of dead. **In my story, Sabo died that day.**

I've got a plan on how I will incorporate heart pirates in, MWAHAHAHABAHA... Cough.

(4/30/16) Thank you so much my wonderful beta reader DemonicWhispers, give her a check out!

 **Read and Review!**


	3. Recruiting Zoro

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own One Piece

 _Summary:_ Across the seas two people who had lost nearly everything suddenly gained an understanding of the future that they didn't have before. It was too late to change the things that virtually ruined their younger years, but they still had time to improve the future… Right?

 _Warnings:_ Luffy and Law might end up being OOC because character development. Strong Language. Violence, more graphic when involving Law.

 _Note:_ Edited for most mistakes. It was also mentioned to me following cannon too closely can be off putting, so I will be implementing some ideas which will take this a bit more off course in the next few chapters.

* * *

 **Chapter Two: Recruiting Zoro**

* * *

Coby was actually a pretty decent navigatour it seemed, because they were getting there pretty fast. Luffy kind of wished he was smart enough to remember all the little details, but his mind just kind of blanked out on anything that wasn't important. If he'd known he was going to be time traveling, he would have been paying a lot more attention in his life.

Law was leaning against his sword, just relaxing. He'd taken his hat off, letting the wind blow through his hair. He also watched Luffy to make sure the idiot didn't end up in the ocean from the way that he was hanging off the boat. It seemed no matter how small the boat was, the idiot felt the need to hang off of it like a monkey. Seems that the name sake was quite accurate.

"You know Coby; marines aren't all they are made out to be. It's all blind; there is no room for any personal thoughts. There are good and bad pirates, and there are good and bad marines. You should come and join my crew; we won't be doing anything horrible like other pirates, just mainly fun adventures well trying to fulfill our goals and dreams."

Luffy had spent a lot of time trying to think about what he'd say to attempt to get Coby swayed over to his crew.

However if Coby learned anything from Luffy in the past hours, it was to follow your dream. Coby very firmly knew that his dream was to be a marine. There wasn't anything else that he'd ever wanted from life. Therefore Coby was essentially every point that Luffy practically blew up his brain trying to think about.

"If we maintain this course, we will reach the base soon." Coby instructed.

"That's pretty impressive Coby, if it was me I would never be able to get there. Don't let Traffy fool you either, he can't navigate at all. That's exactly why you should join my –"

"Luffy-ya, he doesn't want to join. Ask him after he learns more about the marines and knows about how corrupt they are. You might get somewhere after that." Law jumped into the conversation, pretty tired of hearing all the reasons why Coby should join.

Luffy pouted, "But that could take years Traffy~"

"You know Luffy, you shouldn't be joking around so much. Zoro the Pirate Hunter is meant to be held in that base. He's the man that goes after others with the ferocity of a blood thirsty animal, then he slices them up. People say that he's a demon in masquerading as a man!"

Luffy just laughs, "Shishishishishi, that's exactly why I'm going to that island! Roronoa Zoro is going to join my crew!"

"….."

"…"

"WHAT!"

* * *

About an hour later, they reached the base and Coby was still shocked by the idea Luffy had put forth. Law of course knew about this already, but he was pretty surprised about Zoro being known before he set forth with Luffy. The doctour had always wondered why Zoro was called 'Pirate Hunter' well he himself was a pirate. The more you know.

"Finally here! Heh, Traffy we're getting the next member of our crew soon." Luffy said in an excited tone, Law just raised an eyebrow at his Captains childishness.

They started making their way through town; it actually seemed to be a pretty normal town for a navy base. People going around and shopping, the only difference was well, the giant headquarters that was found in the middle of everything.

"Luffy… You should probably change your mind about him being in your crew." Coby says as they move along the road.

"It's too late, I've already decided he well. Besides, I'm pretty sure he's actually a big softie on the inside." Luffy states, with a strange knowing look.

"HE WAS ARRESTED BECAUSE HE WAS A BAD GUY!"

"Hmm, I wonder if Zoro's in that giant base over there." Suddenly everyone jumped away from him in horrour. Law looked around and snorted, how people could be this scared of Zoro when he was currently ranked rather weak was beyond him.

"It seems that Zoro's name is taboo here." Coby whispered, stating the obvious.

"Shishishi, they're cowards just like you. You'll fit right in here, Coby." Luffy reached down and patted Coby's head before something caught his attention.

A vender was selling metal rods, all different sizes. They were most likely meant for building something; various people were buying from the man as well, so it could be assumed that they were okay quality. What really interested Luffy was something that he'd been contemplating over the years.

Last time he went though the Grand Line, he didn't have a weapon. He had another chance though, and weapons looked super badass. Luffy had always thought that using a sword with his devil fruit power would look downright stupid, but using a pipe was something that he'd already known how to do… Never mind the fact that it would remind him of Sabo…

It wasn't the time for grabbing such a thing though really, perhaps on the next island. Right now they were _so close_ to getting his swordsman back, he couldn't bring himself to separate from that path even for a moment.

Before long they came across a rather impressive gate, Coby started crying in happiness. Luffy just ignored it in his excitement to finally see one of his original crew members again, and climbed up the wall and sat there, staring at Zoro with glee clear in his eyes. Law watched with a softened expression, genuinely glad for Luffy-ya to have found part of his crew again, knowing that if he was in that same position, he'd act pretty much the same.

From his seat, Luffy pointed over toward Zoro, "If we untie him, he can escape."

"DON'T SAY SUCH STUPID THINGS! WHO KNOWS WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF WE LET HIM OUT! He'll probably try to kill you Luffy!"

"It'll be okay, I'm strong." Luffy explained, and Coby gave a face vault over Luffy's supposed obliviousness. Law just shook his head from down on the floor, facing away so he could make sure no one came up behind them.

"Oi you guys! You're an eyesore." Zoro spoke, his eyes shaded in a frightening fashion.

Coby gave a feminine screech, causing Luffy to burst into laughter, holding his stomach and trying not to fall off the wall as he gave into his hilarity. His laughing stopped when he noticed a ladder popping up and Traffy whispering frantically, "Oioioi little girl, what are you doing?"

Luffy looked over at the girl and blinked; she in response held up a finger and made the universal 'shut the hell up' sign. The kid then shimmied down a rope and walked over to Zoro.

"You must be hungry, I made you some onigiri." The girl stated, unwrapping the morsels she'd brought.

"You're gonna get yourself killed, Shorty." Zoro stated, attempting to scare her into going away.

"You haven't eaten anything in weeks. Here!"

The girl held out her hands, showing two rice balls for the taking.

"It's my first attempt, but I tried really hard." She smiled at him innocently and tilted her head.

Zoro looked around, starting to get nervous, "I'm not hungry I said! Get going, you're an eyesore! Get out of here!"

"…. But…"

"Get out of here before I hurt you! –"

Zoro was cut off as a group of people started to walk toward them. Three marines, one of them was someone Luffy actually recognized. It was that freaky coward son with the weirdly shaped head.

"You shouldn't be bullying kids. Hehehehehe, you've got more fight in you than I thought Roronoa Zoro ." Came the coward sons voice.

Luffy just watched calmly, "Ehhh… Another weirdo came in. This town is filled with weirdos…"

"Oh thank god, those must be the marines. That girl will be safe now."

Luffy scowled though, he remembered what happened next. Coby's innocent world view would soon be broken. The young captain almost wished that it didn't have to come to crushing Coby's dreams. Luffy turned toward his First Mate, "Traffy, be ready to create a room. Something bad is going to happen."

Law simply nodded, he'd had a bad feeling that the marines were bad eggs here since they walked on the base. Something was just slightly off.

"Hey, these onigiri look pretty good." He stole one from the girl's hands just as he said it, ignoring the girl's weak protests as he stuffed it in his mouth. Suddenly he shouted out, "GROSS! It's covered in sugar! Onigiri should be made with SALT! SALT!"

"… But I thought that they were taste better sweet."

The girl was cut off from possible farther explanation when the bastard son grabbed the onigiri and threw them on the ground, stomping on them all the while screaming about how gross they were and how horrible a cook the little girl was.

"Stop! Stop!" The girl cried, and Luffy scowled harder.

It was difficult to watch and not jump over there and punch the ever loving hell out of that idiot. At the same time, Luffy knew that a lot of things were reliant on him not messing up the time line too much. He remembered what Traffy had said to him before they'd left.

* * *

 **Flashback:**

" _Luffy-ya, I know that you are horrible at following plans but pay attention to this because it involves life or death situations with your crew. If you change things too much, unexpected things could change. If for example you want force someone to give you meat, but later that same person is someone you need to make meat for your crew to live, they might not do it when you need them too." Law explained in the most Luffy understandable manner that he could._

 _Luffy was actually nodding along, paying deep mind to this. He thought of a few times already where he would need to stop himself from doing something, as unhappy as it made him; he knew that in the end it might be needed._

" _Traffy is so funny using meat in his explanation though. Why are you so obsessed with meat Traffy? You should have said something before, if you ask me reallllllly nicely I might be able get more meat for us. I won't share mine of course, because I'm a pirate. But I could get you some considering your obsession…."_

 _Luffy trailed off, but looked deep in thought. Law could feel his eyebrow twitching._

'At least he understands… But I'm never explaining anything to this idiot captain of mine again… Last thing I need is for him to continue getting the wrong idea…' _Trafalgar thought, staring at his captain as he randomly burst out into giggles,_ 'God I can't believe it was my BRILLIANT idea to have this man as my captain…'

 **End Flashback:**

* * *

"Wh-what a terrible thing to do." Coby said, watching the scene sadly, and snapping Luffy out of his thoughts. Luffy almost wanted to point it out and attempt to pry the man away from his dream again, but decided to wait a little bit longer. Even he knew now wasn't the time.

The girl was almost in tears, "I worked so hard to make those…"

"Ohhh? Haven't you seen this paper? _Anyone who attempts to help criminals will be executed. –Marine Captain Morgan_. Hehehehe, even this little brat knows to fear my daddy."

"Does that mean that he's Captain Morgan's son?" Coby asked, almost fearful of the answer. It seemed more and more like Luffy and Law where right about the marines with every passing moment. Truthfully, he didn't want to admit it to himself if it were true. This was his lifelong dream and he could practically feel it breaking underneath him.

But didn't that mean that it wasn't a true dream, if it was so easy to break under the smallest bit of pressure after leaving Alvida's?

Any incoming answer was stopped as the freak son pointed his thumb over his shoulder with the words, "Toss this brat out."

The marine looked completely dumbfounded, something like that went completely against his morals but… "Oi! I said toss the brat out! Throw her over the wall! Are you deaf?! I'll tell my daddy!"

The coward gave in, "YES SIR!"

Luffy watched threw narrowed eyes; these were the type of people he hated. If you were going to become a marine in the first place, you should do it because you have a sense of wanting to do the right thing. The way the coward gave into those horrible orders was pathetic. At least Coby was learning something here.

The man walked over to the girl solemnly, holding out his hands to grab her even as the girl screamed for him to stop.

"I'm sorry little girl, tuck yourself into a ball." The man whispered, just before throwing her over the edge.

"Traffy." Luffy prompted.

A bubble of light blue surrounded them, followed by a word, "Room."

The girl was switched with something unimportant, a rock of some sort, and she fell into Law's arms. Law quickly placed her into the floor, uncomfortable holding the young girl.

"Th-thank you." The girl said, tears still coming out of her eyes from the traumatic experience.

"Are you okay little girl?!" Coby whispered urgently, "What a terrible person… Does it hurt anywhere?"

Luffy left the fussing to Coby, and watched what was going on below with Zoro. Soon it would be time to re-meet his swordsman, and he was rather ecstatic despite the situation's general level of bullshit.

"… You bastard." Zoro glared at the man, people like him where truly the trash of the world.

The boy just laughed, "You sure are stubborn to have survived this long."

"Heh, I'll make it through the whole month."

"Well, enjoy it well you can." Came the smug voice, laughing as he walked away,

"Only ten days left!"

"If you live that long." With that he walked away, closing the gate behind him.

Luffy smiled the second he did, it was his turn it seemed. This would be fun; he finally got to meet Zoro again. Luffy practically skipped over to where he'd been the first time, maybe ten paces away from Zoro, the only real difference between the first time he'd done this, was the different clothing.

"You know, people say you're a bad guy. I bet you're just a big softie on the inside though." Luffy said in a matter of fact tone, unable to resist adding in a tease to his former first mate.

"You're still here?"

"They left you out here to be publicly humiliated… Makes me wonder if you're actually strong." Luffy added with a smirk.

"Mind your own business!" Zoro growled out, starting to get annoyed.

"Hmmm… I would have escaped in three minutes."

"I've got more will power than you. I'm going to survive this. Don't forget that."

"Heeeeeeh… Suit yourself." Luffy turned around, waving over his shoulder.

"Wait a moment," Zoro added, causing Luffy to cause. Luffy remembered this moment well, because despite the fact he didn't outwardly announce it until later, this was when he'd decided that Zoro _would_ join his crew. "Can you give me that?"

Luffy crouched down in front of it, picking it up and faking a look of shock, "You're gonna eat this? It's just a clump of dirt now."

"Shut up and give it to me!"

Luffy raised an eyebrow and placed it into Zoro's mouth, snickering as the man chocked it down with a cough.

"Told you so~"

"It was delicious. Thanks for the food." Zoro announced, his eyes still shaded.

Luffy just gave a small, smaller and more meaningful then one of his wide grins. This was his swordsman.

* * *

"Really? He ate all of it?" The little girl exclaimed in happiness.

Coby, Law, and Luffy along with the little girl they'd picked up had walked back into town after Luffy had his conversation with Zoro. The little girl actually seemed pretty attached to Law, trying to stay as close to him as possible and holding onto the leg of his pants. It made Law stand even more rigidly then he usually would, almost as though he was worried he'd somehow hurt the girl.

Coby on the other hand was looking rather down. Cracks in his dream just continued to form, he couldn't stop himself from drawing horrible parallels between the way that marine had treated that girl, so similarly to the way that Alvida had treated him. Never mind the fact that Zoro didn't seem evil at all, Coby's world view just continued to deteriorate.

"Mhmhm~ He ate all of it."

"I'm so happy!" The girl said, interlocking her fingers.

Suddenly Coby couldn't help but ask, "Is Zoro really as bad as people say?"

"No!" The girl answered without a lick of hesitation, "They spared us and tied him up instead."

"… What happened exactly?" Law asked, kind of curious as to what was truly behind this whole situation.

"It was all Helmeppo's fault! He's Captain Morgan's son…"

* * *

 **Flashback:**

" _Move it! Make way for my cute pet!" Helmeppo said, surrounded by the growls of feral looking wolves. "Anyone who refuses will be executed!"_

 _Helmeppo smirked as he made his way, all the people listening to what was being said, and making themselves scarce. It made him feel powerful, the way they all cringed away from him in horrour at just one mention of the power he holds. His attention was caught on a small little shop, and he kicked the door open with a chuckle._

 _The wolf entered, started to immediately eat the meat off of someone's plate. Everyone in the restaurant moved away with a shriek._

 _Helmeppo scowled however, when one brave little girl got up and started to hit the wolf, attempting to get it to leave._

" _Oi, you! Do you have a problem with my pet?!" The smug man drawled out._

" _Rika stop it! You'll get into trouble!" Rika's mother shouted._

 _The wolf turned around to attack Rika, in that moment the little girl was so frightened she couldn't move, but a chair came out of nowhere and batted the beast away from the girl._

 _The one who'd done it remained silent from the various questions he was receiving, only to eventually speak up because the annoyance wouldn't stop shouting, "Let me eat in peace."_

 _Helmeppo'd had enough, and moved to attack Zoro. This of course only ended with the man's sword on the roof, and the weakling getting punched in the face._

" _I've had enough of you and your pet." Zoro said, pulling out his sword and putting it to the blonde's neck._

" _Are you sure you want to do this? If my daddy finds out about this, those two women over there will be executed… So how about we make a deal. I'll tie you up in public view instead of them. Let's say… One month. If you survive, I'll let you go free. What do you say?"_

" _A month huh…"_

 _Zoro dropped his sword._

 **End Flashback:**

* * *

"…That was three weeks ago. Helmeppo keeps punching and kicking him while he's tied there!" The girl finished explaining, only to end up in tears.

It was an emotionally taxing story, but the surprise was the one who felt most affected by it. Law as a doctour didn't like the way that they were treating Zoro. Beating him up, not allowing hm food or water, and though he might not be the nicest person around he did take pride in his abilities in that field. Despite the fact Law knew he needed to stay out of the proceedings as much as possible as not to change too much, the doctour side of him wanted to go and get Zoro _now_ and give him a medical check.

"So that's what happened…"

Suddenly there was a loud crashing sound; the group of four walked toward it, only to be met with the face of the smug bastard, demanding free food and talking bullshit, "I've had enough of this game, which is why I decided to execute Zoro tomorrow. Get ready for a great show."

Luffy scowled, his eyes darkening with rage. Before he knew it he'd hit the bastard so hard he left an imprint in the wall he'd smashed into, "Tch, Zoro is going to be my swordsman, there's no way in hell I'm ever going to let someone like you so much as touch him."

"Y-YOU CAN'T PUNCH ME! I'M MORGAN'S SON! I'LL HAVE YOU EXECUTED!" Yelled the spoiled brat, holding his rather hard head with a enraged expression.

"Luffy-ya, go get our swordsman. Me and Coby will stick together well you do so." Law said, completely ignoring the presence of the blonde.

Said pirate looked away from the fallen figure he'd been glaring at, and turned toward Law with a half smile, "Our swordsman huh~ I knew Traffy would warm up to this!"

With a childish laugh, Luffy ran toward the base intent on gaining another member.

* * *

 **With Coby and Law**

Coby had just watching the proceedings in shock, The way that Luffy claimed the other was weirdly touching. The pinkette himself always wanted something like that.

Nakama.

"You know Coby-ya, The Captain doesn't really want to destroy your dream. I think it's been really hard on him, he wants you to join, but at the same time he understands how important a dream is. I don't really care either way… But I do think you could do better than these sniveling brats that say they stand for justice when in reality all they are is weak, weak and hypocritical." Law finished off in a harsh tone, watching as the coward crawled out of the restaurant then broke into a run.

Coby just stared up at Law in stupefaction, having never expecting anything like that to come from his mouth.

Trafalgar Law himself was kind of shocked by what had come from his mouth, it wasn't usual for him to say something like that. In the end he just put it up to Luffy rubbing off on him.

The words had effect though. Even Coby could see the way the marines acted as despicable, the final pieces of his rose coloured glasses were ripped away with the words Law had spoken, "I…. I don't know yet. Either way though it doesn't matter. Luffy just walked into danger, you can't seriously mean to just stay here! Come on, we're going to Luffy!"

Coby proceeded to grab onto Law's sleeve and pull him along, worried about his new friend.

"… Don't order me around." Law mumbled under his breath.

* * *

 **With Luffy and Zoro**

It was only a few moments of running later that Luffy found himself face to face with his swordsman once again.

"You again? You have too much free time."

"I'm going to untie you, and then you are going to become my nakama." Luffy stated.

"What?" Zoro questioned, just who did this kid think he was, demanding such things from him.

"I'm looking for nakama to join my pirate crew." The rubber-man stated as he stepped closer to his swordsman.

"Like hell! You want me to lower myself into becoming a villain? Like hell!"

"There's nothing wrong with becoming a pirate you know."

"Pirates are scum. Who would want to be that?"

"Why do you care? You're already known as an evil bounty hunter. Besides, not all pirates are like that, those are mostly new age children who think they know what being a pirate is all about when in reality they have no idea." Luffy drawled out

"I don't care what society thinks. I've never done anything I've regretted. I'm going to survive and accomplish my goal."

"Oh… I see. However I've already decided that you'll become my nakama, which shouldn't be too much of a problem considering you don't care what society thinks of you."

"YOU DIDN'T EVEN ASK!" Zoro yelled, and Luffy completely ignored.

"You use katanas right?"

"Yeah, but that stupid son stole them and put them somewhere."

"I'll go get them for you, but if you want them back you will have to become my nakama."

"YOU DIRTY TRICKSTER!"

Luffy ran off toward the building, pretty excited to finally get his swordsman back. Not only that, but he'd get to beat the ass of the corrupted marines that where here, making the situation even better.

"… He's going to go into the base all by himself…?"

Luffy just grinned as he heard it softly. At least this time he hadn't embarrassed himself by heading the wrong way!

* * *

Luffy snickered as he finally found the area that he was in the first time, double checking to make sure he had the positioning correctly before sending his arm up and using his gum gum rocket to bring him up, laughing even harder as he took the rope to slow him down, causing the same thing to happen that had the first time.

The statue broke, the entire first half of it falling to the ground, Luffy landed in a crouch and listened for the tell tale sound of the head shattering into little stone pieces. That's what that corrupt fucker gets after all.

Turning toward the group, Luffy made his face expressionless and bowed, "Sorry."

He spoke tonelessly, causing many of the people around him to face vault, realizing that it wasn't really an apology at all. At the very least the kid didn't feel remorse over it.

"CAPTURE HIM! I'LL KILL HIM MYSELF!" The marine captain screamed after he came out of his shock over the loss of the symbol of his overwhelming power.

"Daddy that's him, that's the one that punched me!"

"I've been looking for you useless son!" Luffy grabbed him as he tried to get away, "Come with me, we have things to do."

Luffy dragged the blonde off, completely ignoring the marines that were calling after them. Also ignoring the loud noises that the pathetic blonde was making. Once they were in the halls that Luffy knew stored the room that had Zoro's sword, Luffy slowed his running down to speak to the son, "Which one of these has Zoro's katanas?"

"I'll tell you I swear, just stop dragging me all over the floor!"

Luffy reluctantly stopped, and gave a look at the man he was holding.

"You passed it, just one room over. They're in there."

"…Damn I was hoping to avoid that." Luffy spoke under his breath, turning back to face the marines that had just caught up.

"Hand the captains son over!" They shouted, raising their guns.

Of course, Luffy knew that guns wouldn't have any effect on him, that didn't stop him from placing the blonde in front of him as a shield as he said, "No. If you want to shot, go ahead."

"NO STOP DON'T!" The blonde yelled, just as Luffy charged forward through the marines with no regard toward his shields safety.

"Shishishishi, such a good shield moron son, maybe you aren't so useless after all."

* * *

 **With Coby Law and Zoro:**

Coby and Law got to Zoro a few moments after Luffy had finished talking to him, Coby attempting to take off the bindings, and Law watching out to make sure that there weren't any marines sneaking up on them as the pinkette did so.

"Please escape, Zoro."

"If you untie me, they'll kill you."

"I don't care, I can't watch this anymore. These marines… They have made a complete mockery of my dream… I can't just let them to this to someone like you who doesn't deserve it." Coby said, all the while thinking back on what Rika had told them about Zoro and all he'd done for the small family.

"Stop it! I'm not going to run away, I've got ten days left."

"Luffy-ya didn't tell you? Just like him, we overheard the marines saying that they were going to execute you tomorrow. The useless son said so, and caused your future captain to hit him hard enough the man practically made an imprint on the wall behind him." Law mentioned in an almost off handed fashion.

"He did… WAIT A SECOND! FUTURE CAPTAIN?! Not going to happen." Zoro ended in a growl, which was broken when Coby spoke softly again.

"Luffy is being chased by marines; well anyway I'm not telling you to become a pirate. However could you please help Luffy. He's the only one that can save you, and right now I believe you are the only one that can save him." Coby finished in a strong tone.

Law on the other hand, barely hides the scoff that wanted to escape his throat. Luffy did not need help with these weaklings, and if he had needed it, Law would be the one providing it as the First Mate.

Though it was kind of … Cute that Coby would attempt to garter help in such a way.

"Ohh… We have company." Law spoke, just as the marines walked up and pointed their guns at them.

There was near twenty uniformed officers and the captain towered from behind all of them, stomping forward as he spoke, "For the crime of treason against me, the three of you will be executed immediately, followed by your freak friend!"

Coby was leaking tears all over the place, his knees only barely capable of holding up his weight. Zoro even looked worried, as opposed to Law who just narrowed his eyes and grabbed the hilt of his sword.

Luffy was watching all of this from out the window, grabbing the swords and getting ready to descend.

"Gomu Gomu no ROCKET!" Screamed Luffy as he flew out of the window and right in front of the group of his crew members, allowing all the bullets that had flown to hit him, stretching his skin to unnatural levels before it rocketed back.

All the while, Coby watched horrified, and Zoro felt kind of guilty that it happened to the kid, thinking Luffy was dead. Law just shook his head; Luffy was such a show off sometimes.

"Shishishishi! Haven't I told you guys, I'm strong!"

Just as he spoke, Zoro and Coby noticed that the bullets had flown toward the marines and Luffy was completely unharmed, causing both of them to gasp in shock, especially Zoro.

"W-what the hell _are_ you?!" Zoro said in a breathless tone.

"Me? I'm Monkey D. Luffy the man who will become King of the Pirates!"

* * *

 **End Chapter Two:**

* * *

 _Authour Note:_ I was kind of half and half about splitting this whole Zoro thing into two chapters, but the chapter would be too long otherwise I think.

On a totally unrelated note, I'm completely obsessed with Nanastu no Taizai right now (Seven Deadly Sins known otherwise) Like damn, I'm obsessed. Not enough fanfiction about the series, makes me upset.


	4. Interlude: Bepo and Tattoos of Death

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own One Piece

 _Summary:_ Across the seas two people who had lost nearly everything suddenly gained an understanding of the future that they didn't have before. It was too late to change the things that virtually ruined their younger years, but they still had time to improve the future… Right?

 _Warnings:_ Luffy and Law might end up being OOC because character development. Strong Language. Violence, more graphic when involving Law.

* * *

Interlude One: Bepo and Tattoos of Death

* * *

 _Bepo,_

 _I am leaving for the East Blue for some time, and leaving you behind. I need to go and find someone there, and I am not sure it's the best idea to bring you with me. I know that we haven't known each other long, even though we were making plans to set sail together. I am unsure as to what I want, but I do know that I want us to meet up on the ocean._

 _The person I'm going to meet is called Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm going to be joining his pirate crew. I hope that we meet, and when we do you can choose for yourself if you want to come along with me or not. Even though I hope you choose to do so._

 _Your Friend,_

 _Trafalgar D. Water Law_

Bepo read the note one more time, after the countless he'd done so before. The man that he thought was going to be his Captain had gone off and left him, but wanted to meet him again. That was enough for the minkman to want to continue on the path of what would have been their dream. That was exactly why he had taken an amount of money and put it into what was being done.

A submarine.

Bepo was going to make a pirate crew, and he was going to challenge Monkey D. Luffy to get his friend back, or to stay with Law's crew. Both ways he would be happy, and either way he'd achieve his goal of being back with his friend.

* * *

Across the seas and a few years after Bepo set off in the underwater vehicle, Trafalgar Law was on Dawn island with Luffy and Ace. At the moment, Ace was taking his manner lessons with and young bar owner of the town. This left Law with Luffy to deal with, and the mentally aged 21 year old was hanging off his future First Mate like the monkey his name sake made him.

Law had things to do today, which he clearly stated to Luffy when he left the cabin they lived in with the mountain bandits.

(Law's reaction to living with mountain bandits was not something he liked thinking about in any way)

The fact he didn't say what he was going to do exactly was what had caused Luffy to get curious, and to follow him and stick to his Traffy's side like glue for quite some time now as the swordsman dragged himself along to the shop he was going to, vainly attempting to ignore Luffy's presence.

Something which was virtually impossible.

When Luffy realized that they had pulled up to a tattoo shop, he got stars in his eyes.

"Traffy~ Are you getting your tattoos back? They made Traffy look so cool. Maybe I should get one, Traffy do you think I should get one?" Luffy asked his companion.

"Whatever you want Luffy-ya, but I doubt that they will allow you to. You're too young, I might have trouble getting them to agree to do mine…" With that, Law walked over to the tattoo artist and started to explain what he wanted in a 'I won't take bullshit from you' tone.

Luffy pouted as his friend left his side, but got to thinking for a moment.

It was actually something Luffy wanted after Ace's death in his last life, a tattoo for some reason. It was a permanent reminder, something of a physical representation of a story he wanted to tell. Yet what would Luffy want to tell so much that he would give himself a permanent reminder of it.

Eventually Luffy walked himself over to a tattoo person, who would do the mystery permanent picture on him.

"I want….." Luffy explained, going into all the details, making sure that the person understood as he showed a rare deeper level of maturity. Hearing what exactly this would mean to Luffy made the man unable to help but agree to give the young man the art he wanted.

"I'll do this; you'll need touch ups as you grow more though. Otherwise the colour and such will fade."

It wasn't exactly painful, though Luffy had heard it would be. When he was done, his back bandaged along his spine, and he walked out to see Traffy waiting for him with a passive expression.

"I'm kind of surprised Luffy-ya, you didn't seem like the type for this kind of thing, and I don't even think I want to know what you did to the man to get him to agree to doing any sort of tattoo on such a kid."

Law was curious, but he knew better than to ask. Tattoo's could be extremely personal, even though he doubted Luffy would be the type to get something deep like that. Maybe it was a tattoo of meat, and that would be just disappointing.

Luffy gave an uncharacteristic wan smile.

If next week when he saw Luffy getting dressed and Traffy saw a crossed out S on his back at some point surrounded by other things that surely had some sort of symbolic meaning, Traffy would of course take back his internal thought of the tattoo not having a deeper meaning than meat. The subject was never broached between the two what the tattoo meant, but Law knew it meant a lot, and for some reason it made him feel closer to Luffy in some way, that Luffy even allowed him to see the tattoo at all.

It could also be because on a picture of a telescope on his back just below the S, with a tiny inscription of a heart pirate symbol, so small even if you were looking at the tattoo you couldn't really see if you didn't know what you were looking for.

Because even though he didn't get to save Sabo, Traffy helped him in so many ways already that he was definitely a permanent part of Luffy's life, even if the man didn't want to be.

* * *

End Interlude:

* * *

Authour Note: I'm really sorry that it was an interlude this week. Some people have been asking me about doing flashbacks and such at the end of my chapters, but I decided to do things like this sometimes instead. I actually have the next chapter, and it will either be out Friday or possibly in a few days. I cut my finger and needed stitches, so I didn't really have time to go over the chapter for what I wanted, so you got this…

But hey, Fluffy/kinda moments of friendship between Luffy and Law and Bepo and Law? If you read into it anyway...

It also lays a good bit of ground work for my plans involving Bepo and the other Heart Pirates as I'm sure can be blatantly noticed.


	5. Different Plan

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own One Piece

 _Summary:_ Across the seas two people who had lost nearly everything suddenly gained an understanding of the future that they didn't have before. It was too late to change the things that virtually ruined their younger years, but they still had time to improve the future… Right?

 _Warnings:_ Luffy and Law might end up being OOC because character development. Strong Language. Violence, more graphic when involving Law.

* * *

Chapter Three: Different Plan

* * *

It was a pretty tense face off, or it would have been had Luffy not been finding the situation completely hilarious.

Although the expressions that Zoro and Coby made when they saw the fact the bullets didn't affect him was so funny, it made him completely forget the small fry marines that were pointing guns at them. The marines themselves didn't know what to make of the laughing maniac that they now had their guns pointed toward.

Law found it irritating dealing with the small fry marines in any fashion. It was almost insulting going against them, even if he understood that they wouldn't be going against anyone strong until they were farther recognized.

Instead of doing anything to the stupefied marines, Law pulled out his sword and cut away the ropes that were holding Zoro, even as Luffy held the katana tied to his back.

"So Zoro, I got your swords back. Of course, if you want me to give them to you, you'll have to join me. If you try to take them back, well Traffy here will gut you before you can attempt it." Luffy blackmailed blatantly, his voice still cheerful.

Of course Traffy would never do that to their swordsman, not permanently anyway. Zoro didn't know that however.

"… You seriously are the devil. You just assume I'll join you, even Traffy thinks I'll join you without even asking me… Seriously what kind of person…" Zoro seemed at a total lose at how to deal with the situation. Of course, he couldn't allow Luffy to keep his swords, and Luffy did seem like he was competent to some extent, "FINE! I guess I have no choice. I don't really care how I go about it as long as I reach my dream."

Zoro's tone was utterly convicted; it made Luffy grin that wide D. style grin and Law smirk. Coby was watching the man it complete fascination, with just a small slide helping of terrour.

"YOSH! Traffy we got out first crewman! Our first Nakama!~" Luffy sang, raising the swords in victory before handing them over to Zoro.

"Luffy-ya, you completely forgot the situation didn't you…" The smirk wasn't lessened on Law's face, but he never turned his eyes away from the marines in front of them, who seemed to be snapping out of their shock.

"EXECUTE HIM!" Could he heard echoing around the court yard as quite a few officers scrambled forward with their swords to attempt to kill the small group of newly formed Straw Hat Pirates.

"Neeh Traffy~ I think we should let our swordsman take care of this problem. It pretty much solidifies his joining doesn't it?" Luffy said, as Zoro walked toward the marines with his swords drawn the moment the sentence comes out of his new captain's mouth.

Before the small fry marines knew it, they were all stopped by Zoro's swords. The man himself was talking to his captain through his mouthful of sword, "I said I would join you and I will, Captain. Don't mistake that for giving up my dream, because the second that you get in the way of my becoming the World's Greatest Swordsman, I'll have you commit suicide."

Luffy just grinned as he replied, "You'd have to be the World's Greatest Swordsman to be on the crew of the Pirate King. Besides, all of my crew are going to have dreams to fulfill, if I couldn't help them on the way there, then I couldn't exactly call myself their Captain could I."

The words were uncharacteristically serious, Luffy didn't regret anything.

His first life was truly without regrets, but if he came close to having one it would have been the fact that his crew didn't get their dreams. All of them thought big, and trusted him to get them there to some extent, and he failed in that. It was the closest thing to regret he ever felt, when it wasn't in relation to Sabo or Ace.

This time he wouldn't let that happen.

"When you beat the little guys my swordsman, I call beating that sad excuse of a marine captain over there. After all, he destroyed my friend's dreams." Luffy said, his eyes actually narrowing unto an unfriendly look. Truly he was happy that it seemed Coby had more of a chance to join him, but that wouldn't stop him from beating the shit out of someone who shattered his friend's dreams. The situation was startlingly similar to Arlong or Crocodile in that respect.

Zoro looked confuse, but nodded in acquittance

The marines now seemed scared for their lives. Zoro was stronger than them, could take them on alone.

Now Zoro had a captain that he would follow with a strange power that was not understood, and that same captain had a first mate that looked very intimidating. They knew instinctively that they shouldn't get in the way of that group of man. Everything inside of their bodies was telling them to run away. It might have been the tiny slivers of Luffy's haki leaking out causing that instinct, or it could just have been the looks of determination painted on the Straw Hat Pirates faces.

Either way, the Marine Captain noticed their want to give into the enemy in that moment.

"Hear my order now! If you refuse to fight, save me the trouble of killing you after and shoot yourself in the head NOW!" The man heartlessly ordered from his subordinates.

Some of them actually seemed to be considering following the order, and it sickened the pirates with a side of Coby.

Despite what he intended, Luffy allowed a burst of haki to knock out all the marines, leaving only the Axe-Hand Morgan awake. Luffy walked up to him and patted Zoro's shoulder on the way, "Sorry about that, but I'm honestly getting bored, and I really can't stand this guy. Treating his own crew like this, there isn't much that can make you more like scum."

Once saying that, Luffy moved in a burst of speed, grabbing Morgan's head and planting it firmly in the ground. The man seemed like an ostrich after the fact.

A cowardly animal that fit the useless captain's personality to a T

It wasn't until Luffy turned around that he knew he'd missed something. Coby was meant to be taken hostage right? From that useless son, who was laying there passed out from haki overdose? Luffy wasn't sure what to make of the situation, but he knew he needed to think about it.

Without the other people around him understanding, he sat himself on the floor in a cross legged position and started to turn red. Law scoffed as he saw what he knew was Luffy thinking, his captain was well and truly hopeless.

' _It seems that I changed things accidently even though Traffy warned me not to. It could have effects on unknown things or something like that… What if Nami ends up not joining, or Usopp or Sanji… No that can't happen._ Luffy thought, feeling a headache steadily coming on, _'How do I fix the situation though…"_

Coby tuned to Law as he watched Luffy grow a pained expression the longer he stayed the way he was, wondering what exactly was happening to his friend, "Law-san, what is Luffy doing…?"

"Luffy-ya is thinking. It's painful for an idiot like him, and it takes a long time. Not sure what he's thinking about, but it's most likely involving meat."

However Luffy didn't pay much mind to what his First Mate was saying in that moment. Instead his brainstorming soon came to an end as he came up with a brilliant idea. He jumped up with a sigh of relief, causing Coby and Zoro to just look at him with a queer expression.

Law just rolled his eyes. _There was some idiocy you just became immune to over the years,_ he thought right before asking, "Well Luffy-ya, what conclusion did you come to well practically melting the few brain cells you have left after all those fists of love?"

Luffy let out a involuntary shiver at the very mention of that horrible attack, "I will tell you, after we eat. Shishishi, Zoro is on an empty stomach after all."

Law was already starting the moment the name Zoro left his mouth. Ever since he first heard that the man was being deprived of basic needs he wanted to check up on the man. Now that he was right in front of them the check up began. Zoro of course was nearly violently backing away from the man was Law poked and prodded at him. Attempting to see how dehydrated he was, and how much fat reserves where remaining.

* * *

Coby was watching all the proceedings with a soft smile, and while Zoro was being fused over by Traffy, even though the 'okay' had already been given for the man, all the while Zoro had started to ask all the important questions as they entered the restaurant which Rika's mother owned after a few moments of walking.

"So this crew I was blackmailed into joining... Who's in it?"

"Do far it's only me and Traffy, maybe Coby will join as well if he decides to give up on being a marine." Luffy replied

 _Three people_ , thought Zoro. _What kind of crew is this...?_

"Your ship?"

"Haven't got one yet, but I'm working on it. I'm sure someone will end up giving us one on the way. Maybe in a few islands."

"What's with your casual way of captaining?"

"My crew shouldn't need too many orders. They should individually be strong and self sufficient." Luffy states, nodding his head seriously with his arms crossed. It was something that he'd grown to appreciate in his last life time; he wouldn't be allowing that to go downhill now.

"... How many crew members do you want to have?" Zoro queried, almost hesitantly. His new Captain didn't seem to understand the usual components of being a pirate.

"Well originally I wanted like... Ten, but now I'm thinking more like... Well, no more than twenty but you never know what could happen."

Both Zoro and Coby seemed kind if exasperated by this, not that law could blame them. Usually pirate crews where rather large, at least fifty members. Hearing that someone wanted less than twenty was extremely unusual. Traffy himself had been rather shocked by the size of the Straw Hat crew the first time around. Even though Law had his own small crew, only about thirty members, it still dwarfed the size of the Straw Hat members. Now that he thought about it, wasn't Ace's crew pretty small as well, the Spade Pirates?

Either way, it seemed to work for his Captain so Law couldn't bring himself to care much.

"Either way though, we'll be getting more nakama soon." Luffy mentioned, stuffing his face full of the food that was provided to them, his crew and Coby doing similarly as they listened, "We need a main navigatour of course, she'll be important. So we need to get to the island we need to get to and then kidnap her and force her into joining the crew as well."

Luffy said it all in a cheerful tone, as if it was just an everyday discussion. After all, it wasn't like he was going to be hurting Nami. The other three looked at him like he was quacked, even Traffy.

"Luffy-ya… You usually don't resort to such … Drastic measures." Law pointed out, choosing his words carefully.

Coby just looked plain horrified.

"Well Traffy, we need to get her before she goes against a whole pirate crew by herself and nearly gets herself killed. Besides, we are in a time crunch. We need to get to a few islands pretty quickly… Otherwise bad things might happen." Luffy clarified, being rather vague. Luffy knew that Traffy would pick up the huge 'FUTUREFUTUREKNOWLEDGEFUTURE' vibes that he was putting out as he spoke.

"I see…" Traffy finished under his breath, looking thoughtful.

Zoro just watched the by play with a shrug. Internally he thought about how necessary a navigatour was considering his own past experiences as far as why he became a pirate hunter…

The pinkette on the other hand was relieved. After all, he'd come to the decision of a life time. For a second there Coby thought he was going to have to rethink the whole situation.

"Thank god…" Coby muttered, holding a hand to his heart.

Zoro turned toward the pinkette with a curious expression, "So Coby was it, are you going to be joining Luffy's crew?"

Coby had only just opened his mouth to reply when someone new walked into the restaurant, causing Luffy and Law to rise from the place they were seated. The man was a darker skinned, serious looking marine. From what Luffy could remember, the guy wasn't all that bad compared to any corrupt marine, but that didn't mean there would be any trust going on.

"Is it true that you guys are pirates?" The man asked hands behind his back in an authoritative position.

Before any of the others could stop him, Luffy answered with the blunt honesty he was well known for, "Yeah~ I'm Captain Monkey D. Luffy, Traffy is my First Mate and Zoro is my new swordsman!~"

"We are all grateful for what you've done in freeing out base. However, we must ask you to leave. As you are pirates, it goes against our job to allow you to stay for any longer. Out of respect to you for what you've done, we shall not contact headquarters, but you must leave immediately." The man said, adjusting his hat.

Townsmen in the restaurant seemed unhappy with the treatment of their hero's, but any attempt to say anything against it was stopped when Law spoke up, "Honestly, you might as well report it. It will do better for Captain-ya to gain a reputation faster, he has big dreams after all. It's not like anyone on this island can stop him anyway."

Law was just speaking frankly, because there wasn't anything that any of them could do.

Luffy however added onto that, "Traffy is right of course~ You can't stop me from doing what I want." The rubberman gave a teasing evil look to the marines before he burst into cackles, "Shishishishi~ Honestly though we do have to leave anyway. Traffy, is Zoro good to go?"

The only answer that he got in return was a simple nod.

Mentally Zoro was a bit offended by the fact he wasn't asked that directly, but he could understand that Law was the doctour.

The marine just looked a little bit stunned by the offer of a 'missing report' was turned down. What kind of person wanted to bring the might of the marines down on them for their crimes? This Monkey D. Luffy was obviously utterly insane, his wide grin and the sparkle in his eye when he looked at them should be proof enough of that.

"Alright then, thanks for the food Miss." Luffy said, taking his hat off and bowing to the women who owned the bar to mildly reminded him of Makino.

With that, they walked out, Traffy taking up the rear and Coby kind of awkwardly walking along side of them.

"Hey, is that pink hair really with you?" The marine asked, tilting his head to the side.

If the pirate was blackmailing the kid of something…

Luffy stopped, but didn't say anything. Instead he simply turned his head to look at Coby out of the corner of his eye. He'd attempted to show the kid the world of corruption that was the marines, now it was Coby's choice what he did with that information.

"I… I'm…."

Coby wasn't really sure what the hesitation was about. He saw the marines, he knew that they were corrupt; it had destroyed his own dream. Yet the idea of letting it all go, what he had thought about day in and day out for two years aboard Alvida's ship… It was harder than he thought.

However he wouldn't give up on his decision, "I'm… I'm definitely part of Luffy- Captain Luffy's crew!"

Luffy couldn't help but grin widely; already he had more nakama than before. Sure, Coby was weak but after some time he'd gotten strong right? So he'd just train Coby like Grampa trained him, there should be no problems.

With that, they left and moved toward the tiny little boat that they had.

"Traffy we have another nakama and so fast~ I even thought about how we can make Coby-weakling stronger! We should have him face off against Zoro a lot until he doesn't get cut anymore. Also, Coby is going to be our communications officer I think. It's probably important for one of those, oh and he can be a student navigatour once we get out full time one…" Luffy just rambled on quickly as they walked.

Zoro pretty much blocked it out, thinking about all the training he would do, other than when his name was mentioned. He didn't mind playing a game of target practice during his training, so he didn't bring up any objections. Coby himself seemed too touched by the fact Luffy was acknowledging him in any way to notice the danger in such attention. 'Traffy' just nodded along with everything his Captain said, actually agreeing with some of it, but otherwise just trying to get the idiot to stop.

Of course, Luffy sense something that actually made him smirk.

He'd expected that they would have to go all the way to that Island that the Buggy freak was at – Instead Nami was right there for the taking at this very moment, on the same island. No need to wait.

He tapped Traffy so he had some idea of what was going to happen before he disappeared in a burst of speed and appeared behind Nami, knocking her out as gently as possible and grabbing her before she hit the floor.

A smile lit his face at the sight of one if his first nakama who would soon be joining them again. Picking her up he walked toward the biggest boat in the dock intending fully to take that one. They would need more space with the amount of people that would be there.

Coby, Zoro, and Traffy quickly caught up in a light jog, looking at the women in Luffy's arms in a bit of shock. Traffy recognized her of course, even if she looked a lot younger than she had before.

"Oi, Captain, who is that women?" Zoro asked, tilting his head to the side as they drifted off into the sea.

"This is Nami; she's going to be our navigatour. Also, she hates pirates so it's not going to be easy to get her to agree~" Luffy drawled out, practically singing.

"But Luffy-san, why would you choose a navigatour that hates pirates?" Coby asked rather hesitantly

"Because she is my navigatour." Luffy stated matter of fact tone

That was all there could be to it. Once Luffy had his mind set on one of his crew members it seemed that they would become part of the crew with his mentality.

They wanted to be exasperated, especially Law.

Instead they just felt fond of their captain.

* * *

End Chapter:

* * *

Authour Note: Pretty dense chapter to be honest I feel like I should have added in more dialogue. Oh well, if you guys don't like it you can let me know and I'll stay away from it in the future. So I've been thinking about what I want to do about some future arcs. I'm not a fan of Foxy or Thriller Park which probably makes me hated. However I think I want to skim over those episodes in a more condensed and quick version than this. Of course, we will still get Brook I would never leave a Straw Hat out.

I have an interesting idea for what I want to do when we meet Hawkeye, I'm excited to write that which for me is soon, for you well you get to wait a few more chapters ;p

I saw one particular detailed reviewer that wanted Coby to stay in marines, but I simply can't do it. Coby is far too adorable~3 I can't possibly leave him out! Just imagine Zoro and Coby training, why on earth would I want to miss that! We heard a little snippet of Ace in this chapter, but nothing conclusive. However there IS reason it was mentioned, you'll just hate to wait and find out. Let me know if you have any predictions on why Law knows what he knows there ;p


	6. Nami Joins

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own One Piece

 _Summary:_ Across the seas two people who had lost nearly everything suddenly gained an understanding of the future that they didn't have before. It was too late to change the things that virtually ruined their younger years, but they still had time to improve the future… Right?

 _Warnings:_ Luffy and Law might end up being OOC because character development. Strong Language. Violence, more graphic when involving Law.

* * *

Chapter Four: Nami Joins

* * *

 **POV: Zoro**

They had been in the boat floating toward their new destination for about an hour now, the red head was still unconscious, and Zoro himself almost wanted to take a nap.

Not yet though.

First he wanted to watch his new Captain, and the crew that was being gathered here. He wanted to see what he was dealing with, what type of personality his new Captain had. Also, he was curious about the other swordsman that was on the boat, Traffy. Was Traffy stronger than him? Could he get Traffy to have a spar with him so he could see where the strength level lay? What was allowed and wasn't allowed here.

Truthfully his Captain thus far surprised him, and gained Zoro's respect.

First, the Captain seemed to go from carefree to serious at the drop of a hat should it be needed. It wasn't something you would expect when seeing him act so childish, to go into a serious mode that made him worry for the enemy that they would face. He saw it a moment or two back on the Marine Base, but he knew he wouldn't be forgetting it any time soon.

Coby on the other hand was NOT anywhere near as respectable as he found Luffy or even Traffy. The little guy was skitterish; it almost made him wonder why his Captain wanted such a person on the crew. Still, it wasn't his choice; he wasn't even the First Mate here.

This was both pride breaking and surprising.

Zoro wasn't used to people being stronger than him. He was even less used to so many people being able to order him around. Of course – He already said he would join the crew so there was no way out of it now, but had he known that he would not be the First Mate he wouldn't have been so quick to agree. It was a matter of pride for him, and the fact he was considered the 'Swordsman' and not the First Mate, probably meant that he was weaker.

Which brought him so earlier thoughts, was he weaker than Traffy?

The thought circle was broken by the sound of a female's groan and subtle rustling which could mean only one thing,

The Navigatour was waking up.

* * *

 **Luffy/Neutral POV:**

After letting Coby know which island they were heading to, Luffy hurried over and sat next to Nami, waiting for her to wake up.

Already knowing what Nami was like; Luffy knew that this wasn't going to be an easy to deal with situation. Nami wasn't going to take this sitting down, and was most likely going to stand up and attempt to kick them off the boat and take it for herself. Something Luffy understood from her past, but also something he couldn't allow to happen.

Originally, he wouldn't have met her until dealing with the clown guy that Luffy knew wasn't all that important. However, he couldn't allow that to happen this time once he saw her. He was too worried that the little changes that had been made would cause the crew not to get together, like Traffy had said was an option. So he needed to kidnap her and force her to join, it was that simple.

Except even Luffy knew it wasn't that simple.

The faint sound of his Navigatour waking up caused him to come out of his thoughts.

Nami herself was quite disoriented; the moment that her brain had booted up she thought about what had happened to her and drew a blank. Whatever it was, it had happened to fast for her to comprehend anything.

Which put her on guard, causing her to stiffen her muscles and immediately force herself into a sitting position.

Until she was forced back down by a strong hand, "Don't move, Our Idiot Captain knocked you out pretty hard, it's better you stay laying down and slowly get up after your concussion settles some."

 _'_ _Our Captain?'_ Nami thought, still wondering what the fuck was going on, looking through her blurry eyes to see a few people around her, all male.

This was not a good situation to be in as a female.

Therefore she did the first thing she possibly could think to do.

Kicked the one in front of her where it hurt the most.

For a second everything was still. Then a grimaced face grabbed the affected area and curled up in the fetal position cursing up a storm at the top of his lungs. Nami recognized the voice as the one that told her she should stay down.

The same time he was curling up on themselves, Zoro and Coby covered their parts almost as soon as it had happened, Luffy being the exception. Even if a woman was angry, that attack wouldn't work on him, after all he was rubber! Therefore he just pointed at Traffy and laughed; none stop, before patting Nami on the shoulder, "Good going Future Navigatour! I'm Monkey D. Luffy, future King of the Pirates. The one you just kicked is my First Mate, the one with the grass hair is our Swordsman Zoro, and the one with the pink hair is our communications officer Coby. We're glad you will be joining the crew soon, Shishishishi maybe not Traffy so much anymore."

Nami definitely registered what was being said, but her focus narrowed in on a few things, such as pirates, and future navigatour, which was _SOOOOO_ not happening. Who did this guy think it was? Just because he thought big and was a dirty pirate didn't mean that he could force her to do anything she didn't want to do.

As if to show him that, she went to kick him where it hurts as well, standing up and ready to push all these pirates off the boat like they deserved before making off with everything they had left.

Only it didn't work like that this time.

For a moment, Nami wondered if perhaps Luffy was actually a woman, seeing the lack of effect from her super attack. Soon after it though, the lack of effect became a much more serious atmosphere, Nami only telling the difference because the other had been so light hearted, and she never noticed.

"Shishishi~ I'm a Rubberman, attacks like that won't work on me. Future Navigatour, please join us."

Whatever she was expecting after these words, it wasn't a bow, his hat off respectfully placed on his stomach. The pained sounds of Traffy had stopped, the other two members of the crew just watching carefully as their future crew member got dragged into the mess that was this crew.

"I hate pirates. I will never join you." The words were deadpan, but there was so much hate behind them, force behind them, it was as if they could be heard from an island away.

Luffy just looked up and met her eyes, "You can't possibly think that all pirates are alike, they are people too. I understand that some of them do really bad things, Coby himself went through something horrible, so did Traffy. I've met some pretty bad pirates myself too, but I also met some good ones. You don't need to decide now, but please give us a chance."

Luffy kept his words low, still bowing and only just meeting her eyes.

The hatred didn't lessen, but cunning definitely grew.

' _These pirates will attempt to trick me into believing this, and I can just pretend to go along with it as they gain money before eventually ditching them and making off with it all. If I do it for long enough, I'll get all the money I need without doing nearly any of the work.'_ A smirk grew on her lips, "I'll give you one shot, and I'll be your navigatour for a little while, no promises. I can leave whenever I want though. I'm Nami, Pirate Thief at your service."

Luffy wasn't stupid, he knew what that look meant on his Navigatour's face, but he was too relieved at the moment to think of any consequences that could be bad. His crew was coming together, Nami had agreed to join.

That was what mattered most.

"That's all well and good, but Miss Thief, I am the doctour, so you should do what I first said and sit down and don't move around so much." Law pushed himself against the edge of the boat, sitting himself against it, still grimacing in pain, "If you don't, I am, as the doctour not responsible if you end up worse off, considering I have an injury of my own now thanks to your over reaction."

Law was not happy, even though he could potentially understand where the woman was coming from in that reaction; he still got kicked in his weakest spot. A dirty move even by pirate standards, but never below a woman – Something he'd noticed over the years.

Zoro quietly snorted, taking a similar stance to Law's on the opposite side of the boat and closing his eyes. He'd seen what he wanted from the Captain and had a good enough read on him and their new crew Mate. This would be interesting no doubt.

Coby was still in shock, looking back and forth between all the members.

"Coby, concentrate on getting us to Syrup Island as fast as possible! We definitely have another crew member there waiting for us, I just know it! Fill Nami in on all the details so she can take over!~" Luffy said, moving toward his usual place on the boat, hanging off the front of it.

They were all well on their way to Syrup to gain the next member of their crew.

Luffy had missed his Sniper/Liar a lot, it would be amazing to see him after so long.

* * *

End Chapter:

* * *

 _Authour Note_ : Alright I'm sorry! Please don't kill me! I love this story I really do, but I got distracted in all the other fandoms! I beg your forgiveness! I don't deserve it for being my lazy ass self but please!

Begging out of the way, I couldn't refuse to finally put something out once I reached 50 reviews. It was calling me back, begging me, telling me I should stop abusing it. So I did, although originally this chapter included meeting up with our favourite Liar, I cut it out and just edited this much so I could put something out their as fast as possible. I've learned my lesson though, weekly schedules are not something I can keep or promise because I'm a horrible person. I will say this though, this story will not die, I do love it and I will continue to write it even if I don't update for awhile because I'm an asshole.

Tell me what you thought, always interested in what you guys think! Sorry once again!

 **Read and Review!**


	7. Meeting Usopp

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own One Piece

 _Summary:_ Across the seas two people who had lost nearly everything suddenly gained an understanding of the future that they didn't have before. It was too late to change the things that virtually ruined their younger years, but they still had time to improve the future… Right?

 _Warnings:_ Luffy and Law might end up being OOC because character development. Strong Language. Violence, more graphic when involving Law.

* * *

Chapter Five: Usopp

* * *

A silence prevailed across the ship – awkward and thick.

Nami was clearly uncomfortable despite the fact she agreed to join them.

Zoro was half asleep, in an attempt to ignore the atmosphere.

Coby was practically shaking in his boots, not knowing if he should attempt to break the silence to let it go on, especially as he was still unsure of what his place in the crew would be.

Coby silently as possible went over to Nami and explained their direction – and approximately how much farther they needed to go – All the while feeling somber. All he was good at was being taken, because navigation was the only thing he really considered himself passable at.

Finally Nami turned toward the Captain of the ship, who was sitting on the overhanging piece without a care toward the fact he sunk like an anchor if he so much as touched the water.

"If you are planning on becoming Pirate King – You must be planning on heading toward the Grand Line, right?" Nami asked – pouring artificial self confidence into her voice.

Traffy angled a look up toward the Navigator – but didn't say anything, allowing Luffy to field the question placed toward him. Still, Law couldn't help but think that the woman before him was faking something. She had nowhere near the same genuine mannerisms that she had back in the future.

Luffy just smiled, "Yep!"

"You know that a ship like this won't make it that far in the some dangerous of seas, right?"

"Sure do~ that's why we are picking up a ship at the next island along with our sharpshooter. Our ship is going to be so awesome." The teen said, waving his arms around enthusiastically.

Nami snorted – but eventually turned away and focused on making sure that they were heading in the correct direction. Internally however, the thief was smirking up a storm. With an idiotic man like this leading the group – his childish actions would just help allow her to get away with all the crews loot when all was said and done.

Luffy didn't allow the silence to stay forever though – because he was actually surprisingly attuned to his crew despite the childishness he always kept about him, no matter how old he became.

"Coby – on this next island you should pick up a weapon for yourself." Luffy mentioned.

Law actually butted himself into the conversation, "You should probably also get the things you might need as a communications officer, it probably won't be needed anytime soon. It can't hurt to be prepared though."

Coby nodded so quickly it almost seemed like his head was going to snap off.

He didn't even know what a communications officer was.

"Look at how much my First Mate cares about this crew. He acts all serious but look at him now~" Luffy teased, grinning at Traffy, who pointy ignored him.

Zoro got a quick chuckle out of it though.

Regardless, he would figure it out in time to make his captain proud and make himself worthy of being part of the crew.

Law looked at his captain out of the corner of his eye, still keeping as still as possible to avoid any jostling of the area which was still hurting from Nami's attack on his little person. It occurred to Law what his captain had in mind for Coby – A Spartan training course. Which meant that he had a few ideas which could be implemented, that he would mention the next time that they were alone.

Hours later, Luffy was munching on apple after apple, practically vibrating with excitement because they were nearly there.

A few hours.

An hour.

Half an hour away from their sharpshooter.

Finally they made land fall.

Luffy stretched out, a wide smile on his face. Meanwhile Traffy stumbled a bit, quickly righting himself and trying to make it look like it didn't happen. The lack of land legs, combined with his previous injury causing the uncharacteristic action.

He didn't quite shake it off without someone noticing though.

Zoro snorted, shooting his fellow swordsman an amused look. Although he didn't say anything, his amusement was apparent.

Finally, Nami and trailing after her – Coby – Exited the rather cramped ship. Nami excluding an air of confidence, well Coby was in stark contrast, looking around nervously. Strangely enough though, he seemed to gravitate toward Law subconsciously.

Suddenly pellets were hitting the ground near Luffy's feet, which he smoothly enough avoided with little effort, but Zoro was immediately on higher guard than anyone else. Nami looked about ready to run and hide and Coby…

He actually hides.

Right behind Traffy.

Law could feel his eye twitch subtly at this. Surely the pinkette wouldn't be staying in such a state for all that long considering Luffy's plans for him, but something like that couldn't be allowed for much longer – or it might be him that would be teaching Coby a lesson or two in dodging.

Suddenly flags popped up along the ridge of the path, pirate flags.

Luffy waved his arms about wildly, "EHHH! SO AWESOME! "

Really, he did have the coolest sharp shooter around. Using a mystery technique to make so many flags pop up from nowhere like that.

"… This is not the time to be on awe." Nami grumbled under her breath – but not quite loud enough for those around her to hear.

The truth was, she still wasn't sure she was completely safe with them. Despite the fact that the captain seemed like a naïve idiot, his first mate and the Roronoa Zoro where certainly not like that at all. So Nami was already on guard, the potential threat toward them didn't change that.

Laughing suddenly erupted from someone, causing all heads to whip around toward that direction.

A darker skinned male wearing a muted dark green jump suit, bandana tied around his head, and sling shot in hand was spotted.

What really attracted attention though wasn't the sling shot – rather the large nose that adorned his face.

At least to those who hadn't seen the sniper before. Although Law had always wondered the medical reasoning and explanation of such an abnormal nose. Did it have any health benefits or harms? His place as the current Doctor and first mate would mean he should investigate it once their sniper joined.

"I am the leader of the great crew that conquered this island, Usopp! Everyone praises and addresses me as Captain Usopp! If you are thinking of attacking this village than just save your strength. Otherwise my 80 million men will crush you like a bug!"

Stars were in Luffy's eyes.

"AWESOME!"

He totally believed it. His future nakama was awesome enough to have that many men after all, even if he couldn't sense them at all. As far as Luffy was concerned at that moment – Usopp could not so much as utter a lie.

"LOOK TRAFFY! Look how awesome he is! Our future sharp shooter! He's just as awesome as his father! Although I guess he'll have to put his millions of men somewhere else when he joins… " Luffy said, still looking at the man with stars in his eyes, even after he trailed off thoughtfully.

Law on the other hand was face palming, "Captain-ya, you shouldn't believe everything you hear."

The sigh was apparent in his voice.

Zoro just cracked his shit at the apparent belief that his new captain had in the lie.

Coby was practically cowering – A very stark contrast.

"What a horrible liar, no one would believe that…" Nami said, crossing her arms and looking at Usopp out of the corner of her eye.

"Shit! She saw right through it!" Usopp exclaimed in shock

"See? He even admitted it." The female smugly claimed.

Usopp on the other hand was swaying back in forth in distress, "I can't believe they didn't fall for it! This is bad…"

"WHAT?! HE WAS LYING?!"

"Mugiwari-ya…" Law was just looking at him incredulously. He knew his crew members, knew that Usopp was a liar. Yet somehow still fell for it. Really, the doctor didn't even want to know what level of unintelligents that took.

"Damn you!" Usopp suddenly became a lot calmer however, "I may not have 80 million, but I do have a large number of highly qualified and powerful companions!"

The flags started to move, but Nami, Zoro, and Traffy remained distinctively unimpressed.

"All three of them huh..?"

"AH! THE WITCH FIGURED IT OUT! RUN!"

Three children popped out of their hiding spot, and Nami glared at them. Although that didn't really do anything to dissipate the idea of her being a witch. The anger almost made it seem like her hair was floating around her.

Usopp watched them run away with fear in his eyes. Despite the attempt at scaring the pirates away – he found himself doubting he could really do anything against this number of REAL pirates.

"You know, I've never heard of a pirate that uses pellets like this before. "

Nami said in a near questioning tone as she picked up one of the ones which had been shot toward Luffy.

"You're quite the interesting fellow." Luffy said, laughing everything off with joy in his eyes at the fact his future sniper was in such a good spirit, "You should join us! It'll be fun."

Just like that?

Usopp on the other hand didn't seem to find it funny, "HEY YOU! Don't laugh at me; I'm a man of great pride! Because of this great pride, everyone calls me Usopp the Proud! "

The sniper dug into his pouch and brought out another pellet, pulling his sling shoot back into a taunt position.

"You saw it earlier, my skill with this sling shot is better than any pistol."

What was it that he'd done the first time around?

A smirk crossed his lips as he bent his head downward, mimicking a menacing look, and "Threatening me huh? You really shouldn't do something like that without the balls to back it up. Shoot me, I dare you."

Usopp started to shake slightly, intimidated by the air that the Straw Hat Captain was putting on.

Zoro walked up a few steps, putting on an intimidating look as well – Playing along with the captains plan, "The person that stands before you is a real pirate. "

Zoro flicked one of his swords out of the scabbard and grasped the handle.

The only sound was the creaking of the taunt sling shot and the horrible clanking sound of Coby's teeth.

"S-shouldn't you try to find a more peaceful solution…?" Coby muttered under his breath, unable to speak his opinion louder out of fear of retaliation from the threatening pirate who truly seemed like the real deal to him.

Then again, Coby wasn't really used to real pirates - Just people playing at it, thinking that it was all about the treasure and terrorizing, as opposed to real pirates who were usually of the opinion that being a pirate was about adventure and freedom.

At least, most good pirates where of that opinion.

Usopp dropped his weapon at the effect that the genuine pirates were having on him.

Luffy and Zoro where breaking up into laugher a moment later – Only after sharing a grin.

Hell, if you looked closely you could see even Law smirking faintly at the mischievous nature of his Captain and their swordsman. Although Law couldn't really remember the man being quite like that when they sailed together. He was far more playful now.

Coby on the other hand practically collapsed in relief.

"I was just repeating something that someone else said." Luffy explained to the marksman who was still sweating, "A pirate that I really respect, Red Hair, Shanks."

"EHH?! You actually know such a great pirate?" Came the shocked reply.

"Yeah! Yasopp is your father right?"

The effect was immediate, Usopp's eyes bugged out, and he fell downward onto the pathway.

"It's true that Yasopp is my father's name, but how exactly do you know this?"

"I met him when I was a kid. He was really impressive; he showed me a lot of his skills as a marksman. He is probably one of the best in the world!"

Usopp's eyes sparkled in happiness and not a moment later they were on their way to the city. The long nosed male proceeded to drag them toward the nearest food establishment.

Only Luffy and Law noticed that their weakest and most vulnerable member broke away from the group. However they didn't do anything. Law especially knew why Coby needed something like this – A break from all the craziness to just absorb what was happening, and to look into what he needed for his new position, and so forth. Luffy just instinctively knew when his crew mates really needed his help, and when they just wanted to be alone.

This was a sense that he didn't usually listen to, but this was one of the times he knew it was truly needed.

.

* * *

 **.Coby POV.**

Coby made his way down the town's streets, taking in the rather calm atmosphere. At least, compared to what he'd been used to in the past few days.

There were several reasons why he broke away from the group for a short time, though he hoped Luffy-san could forgive him. Considering he didn't even ask his new captain for leave, although Luffy didn't seem to be the type to care about that kind of thing,

He was useless.

Frequently he fell into pits of self pity – especially back when he was on Alvida's ship. He thought that once he'd gotten away from that monster of a woman that he would feel better. He had Nakama, he belonged. Yet still, he was useless. He couldn't help his new friends as he was, and even though he wanted to be strong, it didn't stop him from hiding behind Law when something had happened.

What happened wasn't even anything serious.

His reaction though, was something that even he knew was a problem.

Coby wanted to work on it, he really did. However that didn't mean he knew where to start.

Before he knew it, he was gripping his hair and falling to his knees in frustration.

Just how do you change so much of yourself in such a short amount of time.

 _.Flashback._

 _"I… I'm…."_

 _Coby wasn't really sure what the hesitation was about. He saw the marines, he knew that they were corrupt; it had destroyed his own dream. Yet the idea of letting it all go, what he had thought about day in and day out for two years aboard Alvida's ship… It was harder than he thought._

 _However he wouldn't give up on his decision, "I'm… I'm definitely part of Luffy- Captain Luffy's crew!"_

 _.End Flashback._

No, he'd made his decision and it wasn't something that he could come back from. Thinking about it might make him quaky, but that didn't mean he would – or even could change his mind. If he wanted to try to change even the tiniest bit – He needed to work toward it without regret. This was something that Luffy had taught to him in only the week or less that they had known each other.

Truly, the first steps where already given to him. The Captain said that he needed to get a weapon, and what he needed for being a communications officer.

Two problems were presented in this. One being that he had no idea what a communications officer would need. The other would be that a peaceful island like this probably didn't have any weapons on it – And even if it did Coby had no idea what he would choose. Simply put, even though he was planning on joining the marines, he'd never actually thought at all about the violent aspect of it. Not until he'd seen a extremist version of it on the last island.

Pushing himself off the ground and dusting himself off, Coby looked around.

Tons of people whispering about him, looking at him judgingly, and it seemed that his mild break down didn't do him any favors in this town.

Yet all he did was bow his head in a slight blush, his eyes remained determined however. All Coby needed to do was find someone to ask questions – Someone who might know anything about what he needed, or where to get it, or anything he needed to know.

If that was the first step, then that would be exactly what he would at the moment set out to do.

"Mommy, why was that weird boy pulling his own hair?" A girl whispered to her mother.

The mother shot the pinkette a guarded look before whispering down to her daughter, "It's because he as a mental health issue honey. It's better to stay away from people like that for your own safety. If you ever see anyone like that, come straight to me or your daddy, okay?"

…. Maybe he would start that first step on the other side of town.

.

* * *

 **.At Restaurant.**

The food was good at the place that Usopp brought them.

The atmosphere was friendly, if curious. Luffy had begun explaining just how he knew Yasopp of the Red Haired Pirates, and it was to most people's shock.

"I met him when I was younger like I said, he was on Shanks crew. They stopped on my home island all the time when I was little. In fact, that crew was the one that helped me to decide that I wanted to be a pirate. They talked about tons of their adventures and just how free you can be on the ocean. Although unlike the rest of them, Yasopp didn't talk about adventures anywhere near as much as he talked about you." Luffy explained, ignoring the slightly shocked looks from Nami and Zoro.

Being a 'Pirate Hunter' Zoro had heard a bit about the big name pirates, although never put much stock into it. He still knew what a big thing someone like Shanks coming to some no name island was.

Nami on the other hand was shocked for a totally different reason. This Shanks character – this top pirate, probably stronger than anyone in this ocean – Allowed the island to survive his coming. He was a pirate, and in her world that simply wasn't something that pirates did.

They took.

They killed.

They destroyed.

They didn't inspire people to become like them, especially not little children.

It was something that she just couldn't understand.

"My father, sailing with a big name like that…" Usopp whispered to himself, rather proud to be the son of a man like that.

"Mhmm, you look a lot like him, so I thought you were his son right off the bat." Luffy explained through mouthfuls of meat.

"REALLY!?"

"Honestly, your father talked about you so much that my ears almost fell off. Drunk or sober, he never shut up about you. Really though, he is a great pirate." Luffy stated, grabbing an apple as he thought back on the time he spent with the Red Hairs crew.

 _There is no such thing as a great pirate,_ Nami thought, a slight frown touching her lips. She was beginning to think that the Captain she was currently under was just plain oblivious, _the only thing that pirates are 'great' at is destroying and thinking only of themselves and what_ they _want. Never how it affects others._

However she pushed these thoughts aside for a more pressing matter.

"The fact that you seem to like pirates so much must mean you won't mind helping us out. Is there somewhere on this island that might have a large ship?" Nami asked, sugar spilling from her lips as she used the sweetest tone possible in an attempt to sway the marksman into telling the truth.

"Unfortunately the village is far too small for something like that." Usopp waved away the question.

Zoro suddenly cut in though, "On top of that hill there seems to be a pretty big mansion."

"Hey, do you know them? Maybe they can help us." Nami pretended to beg, her palms pressed together.

"You can't go there!" Usopp suddenly shouted

Law, who had been quietly sensing around to make sure that Coby was okay, was startled by this. It was certainly not the sort of response he would expect from the normally mild marksman that he'd known. Really, the man was a scaredy cat, not the type to shout at people who were clearly much stronger than himself.

There was clearly much more going on here than he thought was possible for this quaint little island.

The interest didn't stop the sharp feeling of intense distaste he felt when the marksman seemingly ordered him around, however.

It wasn't that long after this outburst that the would-be-pirate made a run for it.

Very interesting.

* * *

End Chapter:

 _Authour Note_ : Well it's been awhile again! But hey - Usopp is going to be joining soon, doesn't that make up for it? Honestly though, I've got a beta reader now, super amazing friendly person usernamed DemonicWhispers who has her own really good One Piece Fic that you guys should go check out. Anyway, I'm going to be editing over the past few chapters with her eventually and polishing them up. (Yes, I suppose that means we can spell doctour and navigatour the conventional way. I still stand by the fact that spelling it with a 'u' isn't incorrect, but rather not used often. I learned it that way after all.)

Thank you so much everyone that reviewed, the biggest thing (Other than my spelling of doctour and navigatour) was the fact I'm skipping a few things. Don't worry so much, your trusty authour has every intention of having skipping those things have impact on the over all story. I didn't forget, I choose to do it, and I feel it will make the story more interesting.

 ** _Side note - Coby is getting a weapon soon. What do you guys think it should be? I already have an idea, but I'm willing to take consideration._**

Current call is for Tonfa, which seems to be a good idea for him. I can think of a whole shit ton of ways to fit it in - But yes, I'm still willing to hear any ideas you have to say. This was one of the options I picked, but also reviewers Estriella and The Richmaster suggested. I read and smile at all reviews so...

 **Please leave me a review~ Have a nice day!**


	8. Kuri-guy Enters

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own One Piece

 _Summary:_ Across the seas two people who had lost nearly everything suddenly gained an understanding of the future that they didn't have before. It was too late to change the things that virtually ruined their younger years, but they still had time to improve the future… Right?

 _Warnings:_ Luffy and Law might end up being OOC because character development. Strong Language. Violence, more graphic when involving Law.

* * *

Chapter Six: Kuri-guy Enters

* * *

Luffy was feeling conflicted.

Usopp was his friend, and the blonde rich girl was his girlfriend.

Luffy knew this well, which was why he had this current dilemma. He knew that Usopp's girlfriend Kay-something was in trouble. Trouble that could get her killed from that… Kuri-guy. At the same time, the Straw Hat also knew he needed to be careful, Traffy himself had said that. If Luffy acted too wildly he might lose his crew members.

His face was starting to turn red from thinking when three children burst into the bar, only a few minutes after Usopp left in a hurry.

"Usopp pirate crew is here!" They shouted in unison.

The trio ran up to Luffy, Law, Nami, and Zoro.

"Hey you pirates, what have you done to Captain Usopp?!"

Luffy took another bite of meat as he turned toward the children, "I don't know, he gave us this awesome meat though –"

"Meat!"

All three children huddled together in fright, looking toward the Straw Hat pirate, "Don't tell me Captain Usopp was … W-what have you done?!"

"Your captain was... eaten." Zoro answered the little ones a shit eating grin appearing on his face when seeing the fright the trio held toward the group of pirates.

All of a sudden, all three children looked toward Nami, their eyes nearly popping out of their skulls and screamed loudly. "AH! WITCH!"

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME!" Nami screamed back, her teeth turning sharp and long.

Maybe it's because of your general attitude towards people Nami-ya, thought Law with a slight smirk, but winced right afterward as he remembered the boat ride to the island. It wasn't that Law was holding a grudge; he just didn't like people who kicked him then proceeded give no apology.

Zoro and Luffy started to laugh though, unencumbered by such horribly painful thoughts of a woman's most powerful attack.

Eventually they choked down their laughter and asked about Usopp's whereabouts, the children informed them of where he might have run off to, "He hangs out in that mansion all the time."

Luffy left his thoughts behind, it wouldn't do to change himself just because of his fears, and he wasn't that type of person. This would be the last time that he stopped himself from any action he wanted to make simply from fear of what MIGHT happen. Besides, Luffy would never let any of his crew not join them. They didn't really have much choice as they were already part of his crew even if they didn't know it.

Law was mostly paying attention to the abstract location which he could sense Coby.

If he was asked, he'd never admit it, however the little pink haired coward was growing on him, never mind the fact he was partly Law's responsibility.

Plus from what Luffy said, that pinkette would be a powerful ally in the future; all they needed to do was train him up.

.

* * *

.

Coby had walked back and forth quite a few times already, walking around practically the whole town. It was actually exhausting, physically his legs felt like the rubber his Captain was made out of. This however didn't stop him, if anything the burning pain made him feel all the more determined. How he could possibly prove this determination through lapping the village the pinkette had no idea, but there was the need to do something that could not be denied.

Eventually though he collapsed, right in front of a modest looking house with a middle aged man right on the porch. The man seemed to be missing an arm, but there was a weird look on his face as he looked at the pinkette.

"Oi boya, come over here!"

Coby blinked his blurry eyes as he looked toward the speaker, and quickly scrambled to his feet, giving a bow to the man as he approached.

"Why are you walking around like that?" The one armed man asked the child that stopped a few feet away from him, but it was almost a reluctant type of curiosity.

Coby gave a gulp, wondering just what he should say to the man. The truth? At risk of angering his Captain and putting their Nakama in danger? At the same time though, Coby knew that he needed to talk to someone, to get this all out of his system. To figure out what he needed to do to move along the path he wanted to make for himself.

"I… I guess it's because I'm trying to figure out how to do something I'm very determined to do. I really want to be able to protect my Nakama… But I… I'm useless…"

If possible, Coby shrunk back into himself even farther, and the man just looked at the boy as searchingly as Coby was studying the floor.

"These Nakama of yours, do they care about you?"

Coby swung his eyes up and got a better look at the man, of course he was missing an arm, wearing mostly brown, but his eyes were a bright blue, and he seemed pretty inquisitive in nature, if the gleam in his eyes was anything to go by.

"… Yes…" Coby answered, but really didn't know what to make of the question.

The man suddenly let out a hefty laugh, "Then I have no idea what you are so anxious about boya! If they actually care about you, then they don't give a single fuck about if you can protect them. No big deal!"

"YOU DON'T GET IT! I don't want them to be hurt protecting me and I … I WANT TO BE ABLE TO PROTECT THEM! I need to be able to fight I just… I don't know how, I don't know what… I don't really understand anything… I know that they don't care, they would protect me, that's just the type of person that my Captain is! But… I want to be able to help myself too… I just don't know…" Coby started out almost enraged, clearly overwhelmed, but ended on a far more hesitant note, almost looking to the complete stranger for guidance.

The man stood up, "You know boya, sometimes it's far easier to talk to problems like this with strangers than it is to talk to your friends. I understand what you mean though boya; one to someone else had a conversation with me just like this believe it or not, that was back when I had some real conviction, and a real arm."

The man started to walk toward his house, motioning for Coby to follow him as he entered, "My name is Kujalu Riku. A long time ago I had a purpose… Something I wanted to fight for. I lost it, and a good deal of the people I considered Nakama. Even if I wanted to fight anymore my spirit was broken a long time ago. That's why I ended up at this island in the first place – A nice retirement for a burned out person such as myself…"

Coby just followed the man with wide curious eyes, looking around at the rather simple interior. It was a crisply clean home, almost not a hair out of place. Simple, a couch, a bed, a bookshelf and somewhere to cook food, but that was it. Nothing even close to the extravagant side, but that was okay because there was something far more interesting in the room for Coby anyway.

"No matter what I can't see myself using these anymore – they clearly should belong to someone with spirit enough to protect what they care about. It would be a mockery to see one such as myself wield them now. Please boya, take them. As cliché as this is, I want to see someone worthy of these come to use them. If you can ever become good enough to get recognition, come back here and I'll let you in on a few secrets. Now go on boya, take this and go work on protecting your friends!"

Then he was pushed out the door before he could even blink the heavy wood slammed shut right behind him. Looking down Coby saw two twin weapons, they almost looked like a bar with a handle of some sort on them, and they felt nearly awkward in his hands.

Coby knocked on the man's door, but the one armed man simply wouldn't open it, or even respond.

So Coby left, and he took the weapons with him.

He didn't know anything about them, but if the man wanted him to have the weapon that bad, then surely he couldn't let the man down but not taking them.

They were heavy though, and eventually Coby went to put them down before moving to a store of some sort, because he had one more thing he needed to sort out.

The new weapons safely hidden behind a bush, Coby went into the store, a soft bell rang to draw attention to that fact, but otherwise he was left alone. This was when Coby started to look around the store for some sort of help.

The Store itself seemed to be some sort of grocery store, but they clearly had much more that simple food product. It must be where the town bought everything. It didn't really surprise him all that much that there was only one shop. The village was so small after all.

Legs still tired, he practically dragged himself all the way to the older female that was manning the cash register, explaining his plight, "I'm becoming a communications officer and I…" He started to play shyly with his fingers as he explained, "I really don't have any idea what you need to become one… Do you have any idea?"

The woman gave a motherly smile toward the pinkette before standing up and motioning for him to follow her, "I know just what you need…"

But the rest of it trailed off in a blur. Partly because Coby was exhausted, and partly because he asked a woman to help him with shopping.

Being the inexperienced idiot he was – He'd have no clue just what he was getting into.

Coby walked out of that store with no more money, and bags of what the woman said he needed, arms weighed down far more than they had been when he walked in.

Dragging himself toward where he'd put the weapons, he picked up one of each and added them to the bags, before sighing and started to get moving again. Now that he had what he needed, he needed to find his Captain and the rest of the crew. Something he just knew would be a tiring task.

.

* * *

.

Luffy just nodded along to what the children were saying, not paying much mind, but rather looked at the large mansion with large eyes. Usopp's girlfriend seemed to have an abnormal amount of money for this island – Luffy didn't really understand it, but he still could notice the difference when it was placed in front of him.

"Why does Usopp-ya come here?" Luffy heard Traffy asked the children in a mock curious tone, although Luffy could tell he wasn't really focused on that right now.

It almost made him want to smile that ridiculously large grin of his, because he knew what Law was doing.

The man was watching out for Coby, although it wasn't obvious to normal people in this see, it kind of was to anyone that could sense haki. Law was clearly stretching his to nearly his physical limit to pay mind to the current state of their pink haired crew member.

That was exactly why Luffy knew he didn't need to do it himself.

Traffy would tell him if something was wrong, and Luffy couldn't take it upon himself to do it because Traffy hadn't even asked to do what he was doing. He was simply doing it because he cared. Because he was the first mate of the crew and he wanted to protect them.

Luffy gave a D grin, and gave out a little snicker as they finally made it to the golden gates of the house which they could see for the entire journey there.

"Usopp comes here to lie." One of the kids put it bluntly

Nami bent down to speak to the children closer to their level, "That's not something he should be doing."

"It's not like that!"

"Yeah! Captain is doing it for a good reason!" The children exclaimed one after another.

Zoro rubbed the back of his head as he looked on in confusion, "What exactly does that mean? What could be such a good reason to come here simply to lie?"

"Lady Kaya lives in this house, and she is very weak. A year ago her parents died of sickness, and she has been alone and depressed ever since. Despite all of her money, she can't bring herself to cheer up. That's exactly why Captain Usopp is so awesome! He makes up all these really funny lies to get her to cheer up!" Each of the children took a turn saying a sentence, "The Captain's ability to lie really is first class."

Luffy broke off the information bump with a laugh, "Shishishi~ That's our sniper, cheering up his girlfriend! He really is such a good guy."

Traffy grinned, having expected this, "You know Captain, I'm pretty sure you haven't even offered him a position on the crew yet."

The man was practically teasing the Captain, who just pouted in return.

"You know it doesn't work like that Traffy. He's a good guy and I think he's cool, so he definitely has to join." Luffy exclaimed, waving his arms about, before teasing right back, "Besides, you totally think so too, you want him to join."

"So that guy is the marksman of the crew huh…" Zoro muttered, not really sure how he felt about it, but trusted his new Captain's judgment on the matter. He got a guy like that Trafalgar to join him, so he must have some way of knowing just who is good for his crew and not. Although the jury was still out on that Nami witch, she had agreed to join on a temporary basis at least.

Nami on the other hand was deadly quiet, just watching the Straw Hat'd teen.

He seemed too cheerful, he seemed happy that his perspective new crew member was a nice guy that he cared about the sickly blonde girl. That simply didn't fit into her world view. At the same time, she had to admit that the man seemed strong. The people that followed him, Zoro in particular were not the type to bend to someone weaker. Which meant her view on strong pirates always taking exception with the weaker people around them weren't true.

The orange head didn't really know what to do with this revelation.

It almost made her feel worse. It wasn't just pirates that where the bad people, but it was Arlong and his crew that was. The generalization wasn't something she could allow herself to be deluded into any longer. The truth of the matter was that it wasn't just pirates; it was the shitty luck she had to be the island that Arlong choose, that was why she lost most of the people she cared about, that was also why she was suffering.

There wasn't anything she could do other than gather money.

If she was honest, there was no happiness in her for the Captain breaking her black and white view on the world. It was so much easier before she got knocked out by the man.

Suddenly Luffy raised a fist with a large grin, "Let's get in there right now and get him to join!"

At this point Luffy could care less about a ship, what he really wanted was his marksman.

"You can't get in, there are really large body guards there all the time!"

Even as these words were being said by the children Luffy was climbing the fence, intent on getting to his current goal, gasping tightly and pulling back in intent to rocket himself, "Gomu Gomu no SORRY TO INTRUDE!"

The children gave a screech in fright as they saw the pirates arms distort in a rather unnatural way, like the way a rubber band changes colour and tenses just before you pull it too hard and it snaps, it was freakish to see something like that in someone you'd previously thought of as human.

"AHHH! HE STRETCHED HIS ARMS ALL THE WAY DOWN THERE!"

"THAT'S NOT NATURAL!"

Zoro and Nami grabbed on last minute, Nami still not over her own shock at seeing the man stretch like that for the first time. However, she had heard of devil fruits from the Arlong pirates, although she hadn't thought they'd actually existed.

Traffy refused to do something like that, and extended his arm. A swirling energy appears before it spread out in a sort of bubble around the whole house, using haki to track the trajectory Luffy was headed, and bringing himself there via his devil fruit powers.

It seemed that they interrupted a conversation between Usopp and his … Girlfriend? At least, that was what Law thought they were through the little interaction he'd seen so far. That was not the type of eyes you made toward someone you thought of as your friend.

It wasn't long after Law made his appearance that Luffy made his entrance, Law quickly used his powers to soften the landing that was currently in bound for the non-rubber crew members.

"Successful entry! Thanks Traffy, shishishi~" Luffy said, face stuck in the concrete.

"NO IT WASN'T!" Nami snapped, imagining herself in a similar situation had Law not stopped it from occurring.

"No problem Mugiwara-ya." Law spoke, completely ignoring Nami's miniature temper tantrum.

Zoro just dusted himself off.

"A-Are you alright?" The sweet blonde questioned, worried for the strangers that had just appeared out of nowhere.

Usopp started to panic as she spoke to them, "It's okay! They heard how great I was, so they came to join up in the Usopp pirate crew."

Luffy made sure that his hat was firmly on his head before stepping forward.

"Actually, that's not it. We are here to get Usopp to become our marksman! He's definitely going to be our Nakama." Luffy said matter of factly.

"You're Usopp's friends?"

Luffy nodded with a grin, and was about to say something else when someone started to walk up toward them from the back. Luffy and Law didn't give any reaction, not something that was noticeable, but Luffy did stiffen by a fraction, which signaled to Law that something wasn't right.

"You people! What are you doing here?" The man spoke as he stepped forward, Luffy recognized him, but couldn't remember his name at all.

"Kurahadol." Kaya muttered from her window as she watched him approach.

"You are trespassing and causing trouble here. I'd like to hear your explanation later young miss, for now though, all of you people, leave."

"Do. Not. Order. Me. Around." Law spat out between his teeth, glaring at the dark haired man before him, fingers itching to release his sword. The only reason he didn't unsheath it was because he didn't want to be the reason that Luffy-ya didn't gain his marksman.

"Please remain silent, if you won't leave." The man continued unaware of the danger presented toward him, "Usopp-kun, I've heard quite a lot about you. You seem to be in constant danger, must be a lot for someone your age. I've even heard stories of your father."

"… What?" Usopp asked hesitantly

"You are just the son of some low class pirate!"

Before he could even finish his thought, both Luffy and Law burst out into laughter, or snickers in Law's case.

"HAHAHAHAHA! DID YOU HEAR THAT TRAFFY?! HE SAID THAT YASOPP OF THE RED HAIR PIRATES CREW IS LOW CLASS!" Luffy boomed, a large grin covering his face.

Law himself was grinning slightly, "Ha, this man knows nothing, it clearly shows. Insulting someone on a Yonko's crew like that. I don't know a lot about Red Hair Shanks but I think it can be said that this Kurahadol should be thankful Yasopp's captain wasn't around to hear that."

"Regardless of the lies these people are telling, you are low class, and you come from a completely different world than the young mistress. Is it money that you want, how much are you after?" 'Kurahadol' ignored them and falsely accused Usopp.

Law suddenly gained back his glare. He did not like this man, not one bit. The urge to cut his head off and leave a few vital organs outside of his body was great.

"Kurahadol stop this right now! Apologize to Usopp-san at once!"

"Ah… Kaya no need to go that far." Usopp cautioned her, but was cut off by the same grating voice of the butler.

"Why should I, young miss? This is a barbaric man. I am only speaking the truth! I pity you Usopp-kun it must be horrible to have a father who would rather sail the seas than be with his son-" The man's rant was cut off as someone came up behind him.

"A-a-ah… H-hello… The gate was unguarded so I just came in… I am l-l-looking for my friends!" Came a shy tone which belonged to the pink haired member of the crew, right behind the butler.

The man turned around and glared at him, but just as he did, Traffy was right in front of Coby, blocking the butler's view.

Law gazed at the man, almost daring him to try anything, to say anything to their most fragile member.

Luffy was looking on approvingly, the grin which had faded when the man continued on his long winded and false story of his friends father, had come back.

"Hello Coby! ~ Nice to see you found us. We were just leaving, HEY! Did you meet our new sharpshooter properly yet? Ehhh… Why do you look so tired?" Luffy spouted off with excitement, walking around the butler like he wasn't even there.

"U-hm… I walked around town to get some things I need… I found these things… W-weapons I guess."

Luffy just grinned at the response he was given, "I guess we can start training soon. Alright guys, we are leaving for now. Usopp you should come to, our marksman shouldn't be left alone to this Kuri-guys lies for any longer. I'll tell you more stories about your father when we go."

Luffy purposely tempted the liar with information he would practically kill for, knowing that he should get his friend out before Usopp's girlfriend became more upset.

So eventually they all filed out, Traffy taking up the back and making sure that the pinkette didn't fall behind.

So that was Kuri-guy huh…

Makes sense why Luffy didn't remember him; he probably just didn't even deserve it.

* * *

End Chapter:

* * *

 _Authour Note:_ So guys, what did you think? Coby's bit good with you guys? I like what I have (Only just now) planned for his character in the long run. Any theories on what I'm doing? What do you think of the weapon I choose. I'm a fan myself, it's pretty damn perfect. Not what I originally had in mind, but similar. Coby is going to start growing soon! Nami is starting to develop! Traffy and his interactions with Coby! So much.

It pains me to say this, but the beta reader I had before has to go do her own thing now. Her own (AMAZING!) story requires editing in her opinion. There's nothing for it. Tell me though, are any of you guys interested in betaing for me? I would like to know before I go searching again. If not you'll have to deal with my colour and favour and navigatour and doctour!

 **Read and Review!**


	9. Author Note -- Adoption

I'm not updating this story, or any of my stories, right now. I've lost pretty much all inspiration - Though undoubtedly I will EVENTUALLY come back to write them. Despite that, we have Cynical Internet, who just put out a chapter on a story based off of, damn near adoption of, _Two Captain's Missing the Mark_. They have ideas that were very different than my own, and I do approve of them for the most part. I think those of you who wanted Luffy/Law as the pairing should check it out because she's planning on writing it with that pairing. Anyway, thanks for reviewing this story and everything, and like I said I probably will come back to this one day, but not any time soon so...

Yeah.

Thanks for reading, hope you check out their version of this story...

That's all I have to say.

Wow, this is awkward.

This author note should end now.

Bye.


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